Government’s regular press briefing – Defence of southern border, new Budapest hospital, constitutional amendment

The government has decided to award 29.4 forints (EUR 96m) of supplementary funding to the interior ministry for the protection of the Serbia-Hungary border, the government office chief said on Thursday. The aim of the government is to convince Hungary’s parliamentary parties that the amendment of the constitution is “indispensable for protecting Hungary’s borders”, János Lázár said. There are no grounds to fear that the European Union will suspend payments to Hungary.

Interior ministry to receive extra financing for defence of southern border

Lázár told a regular government news briefing that the handling of illegal migration on the southern border in the past year and a half had cost over 100 billion forints.

On other topics, Lázár said that at the initiative of Semmelweis University, which is Hungary’s primary medical training centre, a new medical centre for children would be established, among other health-related developments.

On the subject of public administration, Lázár said that in the next 3 years, 250 billion forints would be channelled towards revamping the civil service, and 45 related laws would be amended with the aim of reducing red tape.

Constitutional amendment ‘indispensable’ 

Lázár told a regular government news briefing that the prime minister had consulted on the matter with the leader of the Socialist Party and that he would hold talks next week with the leader of Jobbik.

Lázár said taking into consideration consultations that have already taken place, it was likely that the amendment proposal would have the parliamentary majority required for it to pass. He noted that parliament is scheduled to start debating the proposal next Monday and is expected to vote on it on either the first or the second week of November.

Socialist Party leader Gyula Molnár later said in a statement that he would not meet the prime minister. Molnar confirmed that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had reached out to him to set up a meeting on the amendment proposal.

Molnár said he would be willing to meet Orbán if the prime minister wanted to discuss security policy matters concerning Hungary, the future of the EU or the “restoration” of the rule of law and the freedom of the press in Hungary.

On the topic of next week’s session of the European Council, Lázár said that the political goal of Hungary is to block binding migrant quotas, and that it is expected that the council’s members would confirm their standpoint that the quota can only be voluntary. He noted that on Thursday evening he is set to meet Austrian Chancellery Minister Thomas Drozda in Vienna in advance of the European Council session.

The Hungarian government supports Germany’s efforts to try to curb illegal migration into the EU through the migration deals the bloc has signed with Turkey and certain African countries, Lázár said. But Hungary also believes these agreements are no reason for the EU to give up on protecting its external borders, he added. Lázár also said he thought the EU had so far done “ridiculously little” to protect the external borders.

Lázár also commented on a recent editorial by The New York Times about Hungary’s migrant quota referendum, in which the paper’s editorial board said that “[Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán and other nationalists who are rejecting the liberal values of tolerance and free movement … risk stirring animosities that less than a century ago led the Continent into world war.” The government office chief said it was “obviously crazy” of the NYT “to imply that the Hungarian government is a Nazi government”.

Commenting on recent remarks by certain European politicians who have suggested that the EU should suspend funding for Hungary, Lázár said that the EU’s founding treaty did not allow any way for a member state to be stripped of its rights to cohesion funds. If cohesion funds were to be suspended, Hungary would have to protect its economy, he said. But Lázár insisted that fears of Hungary having its EU funds suspended were unfounded. He added, at the same time, that there was always a possibility that “political decisions” could be made against Hungary, but he insisted that such decisions would penalise the Hungarian people and not the government. Lázár said he would travel to Brussels next Wednesday to clear up the situation around EU funding for Hungary.

Lázár said Hungary was entitled to 8.9 trillion forints (EUR 29.1bn) in EU money in the current budgetary period, adding that tenders have already been called for 6.391 trillion forints, or 71 percent of the funds. The government aims to call tenders for the remaining funds before the year is out, he added.