Utility support scheme will need Budapest municipal assembly’s approval
The utility price support scheme the municipality of Budapest plans to introduce as of October 1 will need the approval of the municipal council which will meet on Wednesday, Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, told public media on Monday.
Karácsony announced last week the municipality’s plan to launch a utility price support scheme where people with low incomes will be eligible for 48,000 forints (EUR 118) a year, to be deducted from their utility bills. Low-income families raising children, people living with disabilities or chronic illness and retirees with their pensions below subsistence level will be eligible for the support, the mayor then said. Elderly people whose pensions are below the “real average” pension will be eligible for 24,000 forints annually, he added. More details HERE.
The scheme, Karácsony said, aimed to fulfil his election promise to extend the “social care model” founded in Budapest’s 14th district when he was mayor there.
Answering a question about the scheme at a press conference held on a different topic on Monday, Karácsony said “the question is not from which resources will we be able to pay the scheme, but […] that the capital city should fulfill my election promise of providing utility support to pensioners and families in need”.
The mayor said the scheme would involve around 150,000 households and cost over one billion forints.
Read alsoThese could be the victims of rising energy prices in Hungary
No public transport fare rise but reduced usage of lights in Budapest
Gergely Karácsony, mayor of Budapest said that public transport fares will not rise in Budapest. However, he announced some proposals for energy conservation, which include reduced usage of decoration lights in the city.
Public transport fares will not rise
According to 24.hu, the price of tickets and season tickets in Budapest will not rise. They will remain at the same level which has been valid since January 2014. “We are not raising the price of line tickets and season tickets because there is no fare rise that would solve the budgetary problems of the public transportation company in Budapest.” – wrote the mayor on Facebook. The state is more and more reluctant to finance the public transport in Budapest. Now, they contribute only 6 percent, he added. “This number is also way more modest than in other European countries, but it is at the forefront of something else: the deduction of the city’s own resources.” Only 24- or 72-hour tickets and surcharges will increase.
Read alsoWizz Air explained why they left passengers in France & UK without help
Proposals for energy conservation
The first “Energy Summit” was held at Town Hall on Monday. – reported index.hu. According to the mayor, the energy crisis and rising energy prices are “everyday reality”. In the last decade, there were not enough “green and sustainability investments” in Hungary, he said. Budapest has had the second-largest increase in average temperatures in the past 50 years among major European cities. The average temperature in the capital is already 4 degrees higher.
The 4 proposals:
- The usage of decoration lights will be shortened by two hours. In the summer, lights will be turned off after 11 pm.
- In the summer months, buildings will be cooled to a maximum of 25 degrees. In the winter months, to a maximum of 20 degrees.
- Continue “less energy and fuel-intensive transport investments and vehicle replacement”.
- By 2030, they want to make the utilities of Budapest function by using the energy the city produces.
Need for European funding
“Of course, these initiatives also require European resources and a partnership with the government” – said Gergely Karácsony. Budapest is ready and able to use its European relations. However, it is also necessary for the government to return to the rule of law and for Hungary to have access to EU funds. The mayor counts on both European funding and government partnership.
Read alsoMeeting of EU energy ministers – The decline in energy supply in Western Europe is also having an impact in Hungary
Budapest Mayor: Budapest Assembly lacks quorum ‘due to conflict between party leaders’ – UPDATED
The General Assembly of the Budapest municipality was cancelled on Wednesday due to conflict between the leaders of the parties in the leading coalition, Mayor Gergely Karácsony has said.
Karácsony told journalists that the city assembly “couldn’t work today” due to
“insurmountable” differences in opinion between the leadership of the Democratic Coalition and the Momentum Movement “regarding the upcoming by-elections”.
He stressed the differences were not between the assembly groups of representatives or mayors.
Zsolt Wintermantel, the leader of the Fidesz-Christian Democrat group in the assembly, said “in-fighting between leftist parties is hindering the progress of Budapest’s issues.”
Karácsony said on Facebook later in the day that “opposition parties and personnel questions are important but no more than municipal affairs” adding that
“this has been the first and will be the last occasion for party politics to overwrite the matters of Budapest”.
The mayor said that the municipal assembly on Wednesday would have discussed declaring a riverside area in southern Budapest a nature reserve, lengthening tram lines on the Buda side, as well as partnerships between the city and Hungarian and international companies for development projects.
Read alsoBREAKING NEWS – Orbán: Hungarian government declares state of emergency
Top court rules referendum bids on China’s Fudan University, jobless benefits unconstitutional
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that a decision by the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, approving referendum initiatives on the Budapest campus of China’s Fudan University and the extension of the jobseekers’ allowance is unconstitutional.
The ruling means that a referendum cannot be held on those issues.
In its justification, the Constitutional Court said a national referendum on the planned Budapest campus of Fudan University could not be held because it concerned an international agreement between Hungary and the People’s Republic of China.
Meanwhile, the issue of extending the eligibility period for jobless benefits cannot be put to a vote because it would impact the state budget, the court said.
Under Hungarian law, referendums cannot be initiated on subjects which would affect obligations stemming from an international agreement and ones that involve changes in public finance.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony announced last July that he would initiate a referendum on five issues.
In August, Hungary’s National Election Committee certified two of those referendum questions; one on Fudan University’s Budapest campus and one on the extension of jobless benefits. The questions were approved by the Kúria in December.
The Kúria’s rulings were appealed to the Constitutional Court.
Read alsoDanish sculptor’s work exhibited in Budapest in protest of Chinese project
UPDATE
Commenting on the ruling, Karácsony said the Constitutional Court had “done the political bidding” of the ruling Fidesz party.
In a Facebook post, Karácsony said it appeared that the ruling parties “only like to reference the people but are actually afraid of them”, adding that future generations would judge the members of the court.
The mayor said the city council would now have to find a way for Budapest residents to express their opinions on the two issues in question.
Budapest drops plans for Gellért Hill funicular
The municipal council of Budapest has decided to terminate a 2009 agreement under which a funicular as well as a bus park would have been built on central Gellért Hill.
The council adopted the proposal to drop the agreement with 17 votes for, 6 against, and with one abstention.
According to the proposal, construction of the planned facilities has not even started in the past 13 years, while “changes to the original technical content renders completion of the project impossible for reasons on the investor’s side”.
The proposal also referred to “significant changes in the legal environment” and said that “the financial equilibrium of the agreement has toppled”.
Mayor Gergely Karácsony said the project would have involved “tremendous environmental risks” and the “spectacle”, whose plans have been modified, would “further burden Gellért Hill” and it would not eliminate the tourist buses currently frequenting the hill top.
- read also our previous article: The construction of Gellért Hill’s new funicular to begin soon! – PHOTOS
Read alsoBuda Castle Funicular renewed – PHOTOS
City Hall sale plans: there is no evidence, committee closed the case
The municipal assembly of Budapest’s committee examining alleged plans to sell City Hall adopted a report on the investigations on Monday, concluding there had been no decision to sell the landmark building.
The report, drafted by Tamas Soproni of the Momentum Movement, the mayor of the 6th district, said no committee member had come up with any evidence to support the alleged wrongdoing. The document also established that the municipality’s property sales practices were “entirely transparent”.
The committee also voted down an alternative report by Péter Kovács, the (Fidesz) mayor of the 16th district, who insisted
the municipal assembly’s left-wing majority “has, from the beginning, sought to deny or belittle the facts that have come to light”.
Kovács insisted on his own conclusion that “Budapest’s leadership did indeed want to sell City Hall”. The documents available, leaked recordings, and testimonies of witnesses heard by the committee all pointed to “the likelihood of plans” to sell the building.
- read also: Budapest’s mayor wants to investigate corrupt state secretary’s links to Fidesz-controlled districts
Before the vote, Socialist deputy Csaba Horváth said Kovács’s report was not objective and could not be adopted, while Soproni accused Kovács of peddling government propaganda.
In a statement, Kovács said former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai had not made himself available to the committee. “It is up to the investigative authorities to find out about his role in the operations of the municipality and its property sales,” he added.
Kovács said the committee had been “doomed to failure from the beginning” as leftist deputies were in a majority and they “openly expressed their preconceptions”.
Read alsoBudapest’s public transport has now been ensured
Budapest’s public transport has now been ensured
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony on Monday signed an agreement on the state funding of the city’s public transport system, a 12 billion forint (EUR 33m) support which he said covered 7 percent of the sector’s total budget.
As we wrote before, the Hungarian capital city has been waiting for the 12 billion forints (32.4 million euros) government funds to finance the public transport services. Details HERE.
Karácsony told a press conference after meeting Innovation and Technology Minister László Palkovics on Monday that the funding ensured the stable operation of public transport in the city. If the money is transferred this year, the city transport company will close the year without debts, he said.
He said it was unclear to him why “political pressure by the municipality was necessary” to receive the funding, which is normally allocated around this time of the year as an item in the country’s central budget.
He pledged the company would now remove public announcements on the lack of funding on transports.
He said that
“stable operation of Budapest’s public transport has now been ensured
and the country will have a new government next year with which cooperation will be much smoother”.
Read alsoThis is how shutting down Budapest’s public transport can be avoided
Hungary has enough vaccine, says minister
Hungary has a sufficient amount of coronavirus vaccines, Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff, told parliament’s justice affairs committee on Tuesday.
In his yearly briefing to the committee, the minister said that a total 10 million vaccine doses were available, adding that the government was working to increase the number of people inoculated with a booster jab to 4-5 million. “Even if everybody asked for Pfizer as the third jab, we’d have enough to go round,” he added.
The minister said
the range of services restricted to holders of vaccination certificates would be defined depending how the Covid situation panned out.
Meanwhile, Gulyás said that the pandemic was putting a great strain on public administration. In the spring, staff had to coordinate administration of 200,000 jabs on certain days, while they also had to manage over 200,000 job protection subsidy applications and 22,000 applications for research and development aid, he said.
Answering a question concerning whether vaccinations would be mandatory, Gulyás noted that
Austria had been the only EU country so far to do so, adding that the Hungarian government has introduced compulsory vaccination in public administration.
- read more news about Coronavirus in Hungary
On another subject, Gulyás said that central subsidies for civil groups had increased from an annual 3.4 billion forints (EUR 9.3m) to 10 billion forints between 2012 and 2021, while financing for religious organisations had tripled since 2010. Ethnic Hungarian communities now receive about ten times as much assistance, while the Hungary Helps programme has launched 170 projects in 50 counties to help some half a million people stay in their homeland, he said.
Answering a question concerning the upcoming general election, Gulyás said
the government was not planning to change the electoral laws.
Concerning a proposal under which winning candidates on the opposition’s list would have to form a joint parliamentary group, Gulyás said that the current rules were correct and he was unaware of any plans to change them.
Regarding public transport, Gulyás said the government was “seeking an opportunity” to transfer public transport subsidies owed to the city of Budapest, but city leaders “won’t agree”. The funds are there, he said, but were being held up by disputes concerning the financing of local train sections within the city’s boundaries. “The city seems to be seeking dispute rather than agreement,” he added.
Gulyás confirmed the government treated Budapest as “the nation’s capital” and was supporting its development accordingly, especially given “the biggest railway development programme of the past 100 years” in the greater Budapest area totalling 1,000 billion forints.
Meanwhile, Gulyás said
that regional government offices would benefit from an extra 16 billion forints next year to cover a pay hike of 10 percent.
Gulyás said the past 10 years had been the Hungarian economy’s “most successful decade”, with local governments benefitting mostly thanks to road and public facility upgrades. He highlighted the Hungarian Village development programme, which, he said, had helped reverse negative demographic trends in 1,000 small villages.
Read alsoThird and fourth jabs to come? – This is what Hungarian virologists think
Budapest mask-wearing decree to be revoked!
An upcoming meeting of the Budapest General Assembly will revoke a municipal decree on mask wearing because it goes against a government decree, a higher-level regulation, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Monday.
In line with the government decree, masks covering the nose and mouth will be mandatory to wear in certain locations and it will not be sufficient to wear a scarf, as stipulated in the municipal decree, Karácsony said on Facebook.
“The novel coronavirus apidemic is spreading in the country at an unprecedented rate,”
he said and asked everyone to observe preventive regulations.
Karácsony said
the municipal council was first to take action when it had made face covers mandatory in the spring and was also first to introduce stricter regulations in the autumn, making face covers mandatory not only on public transport and in shops, but also in theatres and other cultural institutions.
Thanks to Budapest residents observing the regulations in a disciplined manner, national statistics show that compared to the number of residents, the capital is in mid-field in terms of the number of infections, he added.
Hungary on Monday registered 2,316 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour span, raising the national total to 61,563, according to the government’s coronavirus information website. In the past 24 hours, a further 47 people had succumbed to the disease, taking the death toll to 1,472 in Hungary, while 16,491 have recovered. Currently, 2,602 patients are being treated in hospital, 233 of whom are on ventilators. Details HERE.
Despite the increasing numbers, the goal of the Hungarian government is still to keep the country running and functioning, and not to let the virus paralyze everyday life, according to the website.
“During the current autumn break, schools are conducting thorough disinfecting cleaning, while authorities have ordered the temporary closure of 51 kindergartens,” the website added.
Last Friday, the government made the wearing of masks compulsory in outdoor events.
Hungary’s COVID-19 cases have risen sharply since late August. The country’s caseload topped 10,000 on Sept. 10, 20,000 on Sept. 23, 30,000 on Oct. 4, 40,000 on Oct. 14 and 50,000 on Oct. 21.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has pledged to procure a COVID-19 vaccine, which will be made available to all citizens who want it.
Orbán explained that his administration was conducting talks with the United States, Japan, China and Russia on vaccine procurement.
Hungary had also contributed to research programs funded by the European Union.
Mayor Karácsony: Budapest mulling 0.5 pc business tax for recovery
Budapest is mulling the introduction of a 0.5 percent “recovery” tax on larger businesses until Budapest emerges from the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic.
The city’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, said in a presentation to the Metropolitan Interest Coordination Council carried live on Facebook on Wednesday that Budapest’s ability to function was in the national economic interest, and new ways to share the public burden in a crisis needed to be considered on a temporary basis.
Businesses from sectors that are less affected by the epidemic should pay the tax, he added.
The mayor said Budapest was set to lose three times the amount of tax revenue than the central budget.
Fully 70 percent of the capital’s revenue comes from the business tax, which has fallen to 139 billion forints this year from 165 billion in 2019, he added.
The capital’s operating budget of 300 billion forints has a 69 billion forint “hole” this year,
Karácsony said, adding that tight revenues were expected to loosen by 2022-2023.
The mayor added that his administration wanted to renegotiate central withdrawals from the capital’s budget with the government.
Read alsoBudapest will run out of properties with reduced VAT rates by 2021
Liget Budapest – City assembly approves amendment to construction rules
Budapest’s metropolitan assembly on Wednesday approved an amendment to building regulations in connection with the revamp of the capital’s City Park.
The amendment was approved with 18 votes in favour, 10 against and one abstention.
The proposal notes that the amendment nixes construction of the New National Gallery, the Hungarian House of Innovation and the City Park Theatre along with certain catering and commercial establishments with the aim of turning the areas on which they would have been built into green spaces.
It also adds regulations pertaining to the use of renewable energy and amends existing ones with the aim of protecting the park’s plant life.
In a debate before the amendment was passed, Fidesz councillor Zsolt Láng called its approval “unlawful”, arguing that it went against a government decree fixing the project’s building regulations issued on Tuesday which says the capital will not have the authority to amend building rules set out in the decree. Read more HERE: Liget Budapest – Hungarian government decree fixes City Park construction rules
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said
the city’s leadership had offered to compromise on the project with the government by allowing completion of construction projects that were already under way in the area.
Read alsoHouse of Hungarian Music is winner of prestigious Music Cities Awards
Liget Budapest – Hungarian government decree fixes City Park construction rules
A new government decree fixes the current building regulations in connection with the revamp of Budapest’s City Park.
According to the decree published on Tuesday evening in the latest issue of Magyar Közlöny, the official state gazette, the capital will not have the authority to amend building rules set out in the decree.
These stipulate, for example, the dimensions of buildings to be built in the park and the amount of green area attached to each site.
László Baán, the ministerial commissioner in charge of the Liget Budapest project, told MTI that the government decree does not entail any changes in terms of how the Liget Project investment proceeds, and maintains the current regulations in all respects.
Budapest’s city administration, he insisted, had been intent on bypassing dialogue with the project’s leaders, but thanks to Tuesday’s decree, opportunities for dialogue remained.
He noted
the Budapest leadership started the ball rolling to change current City Park building regulations six months ago.
Baán insisted the issue of the park’s revamp was a national matter as well as a local one. He accused the city’s leaders of bypassing the Metropolitan Public Development Council and had submitted its planned amendments to the Metropolitan General Assembly directly.
He said the city’s leaders had ignored the views of 2,000 civilian participants, more than 90 percent of whom argued in favour of maintaining the current regulations.
Baán said the project’s leadership was committed to putting the construction of the three new sites that the capital’s leadership objected to on hold until an agreement is reached with it. The sites are the New National Gallery, the Hungarian House of Innovation and the Városliget Theatre.
But, he added, given the “outstanding importance” of the planned developments “that serve the interests of Budapest and the nation”, the sides should work towards the conclusion of an agreement based on professional arguments and facts, he said.
The commissioner said
the metropolitan leadership’s emergency amendment would have nixed construction of the New National Gallery, the Hungarian House of Innovation and the City Park Theatre.
Baán insisted that the proportion of green areas in the City Park would grow from 60 percent to 65 percent under the Liget Project plans, adding that buildings had always been in place at the sites in question, so, he added, the city leadership’s claim that its amendment was about protecting green spaces was spurious.
Baán said the Liget Project’s developments handed over so far had proved popular, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to the renovated areas of the park, the new playground, the Millennium House, Rose Garden, City Park Sports Centre and fields and the dog park.
He said opinion polls indicated that 70 percent of Budapest’s residents and 80 percent nationally wanted the Liget project to be fully implemented.
Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, said in response that
the central government had “re-opened the fight” over the issue of City Park with the decree.
He said that as a mayoral candidate in last autumn’s municipal election, he had vowed to protect the park’s green areas and ban any further construction there.
“The majority of Budapest residents voted for this programme which we will carry out,” Karácsony said on Facebook. The mayor said that “for a short while” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had appeared to accept the voters’ choice, saying that “what the City Assembly does not want will not happen”.
The decree published on Tuesday night invalidates the prime minister’s promise, Karácsony said, adding that the decree contravened Hungarian law declaring public parks off-limits to construction sites.
He pledged to submit a proposal that corresponded to his original programme “and respects the will of Budapest voters” to the municipal assembly later today.
Read alsoWOW! Car traffic to be banned in City Park and Heroes’ Square!
Budapest Assembly tightens rules on mask-wearing, introduces fines for infractions!
At a special session of Budapest’s City Assembly on Monday, councillors voted to tighten regulations on wearing masks in public spaces in Budapest.
Under the decision, wearing masks will be compulsory in cinemas, theatres, concerts, circuses and at similar indoor events, as well as during meetings of residents in apartment blocks.
If masks are not worn properly or at all, violators face an on-the-spot fine of up to 8,000 forints or an administrative fine of up to 15,000 forints (EUR 42).
Apart from the on-the-spot fines for visitors of venues, their owners may be fined up to 50,000 forints for any breaches of the rules.
The decision passed unanimously and is scheduled to come into force on Friday.
As we wrote today, the number of registered coronavirus infections in Hungary has risen by 844 to 13.153 over the past 24 hours, which is the second highest number of daily cases.
We also wrote, Hungary’s nationwide ban on visits to social care homes has affected some 1,600 facilities, details HERE.
