Socialists: Brussels Has No Intention Of Endangering Hungarian False Acacia

Budapest, May 3 (MTI) – Not a single European body is intent on restricting the cultivation of false acacia, the Socialist Party said in a statement on Saturday.

“Besides the stupidity of [ruling party] Fidesz, no one is endangering Hungarian acacia,” the statement by Tibor Szanyi and Gyorgy Mudri said.

They accused Bela Glattfelder, a Fidesz MEP, of scaremongering by stating that the European Commission wanted to order the reduction or elimination of the tree, which environmentalists say is a non-indigenous species which can harm the local habitat.

Fidesz plans to amend the forestry law to include a clause on protecting false acacia and honey from its blooms.

On Friday, Glattfelder underlined a previous vow to block any attempt by the commission to cut back or eliminate false acacia.

The Socialists said that on the basis of proposals by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Hungarian authorities normally ban the planting of acacia in environmentally protected areas. Otherwise they promote its cultivation.

All that EU member states are required to do is to declare in which areas they wish to cut back invasive types of tree, whose spread can damage other plant life, their statement said. This means that the government has a year to form its standpoint in respect of false acacia, and this is something that the EU will honour, it added.

The Socialist statement said that rather than whipping up hysteria over the acacia, the government should be preoccupied with “restarting European financial assistance which has been paused since the start of April”.

Photo: erdely.ma

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters