Paks nuclear plant project

The nuclear watchdog gives the green light for Russia’s Rosatom to start building the new reactor in Hungary

paks

The National Atomic Energy Authority (OAH) has issued the construction permit for the reactor building of one of the new blocks of Hungary’s sole nuclear power plant in Paks, paving the way for the start of construction works, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said on Tuesday.

The reactor building will guarantee that no harmful substances will be released into the environment during the energy production process, the foreign ministry cited Péter Szijjártó as saying. This, he added, will ensure that “there will be no need to fear radioactive contamination in the event of any external natural or human influences or — God forbid — attacks.”

The plant is being built in line with the strictest safety requirements and the special double-wall containment structure would even prevent contamination if a large passenger plane were to crash into it, Szijjártó said.

He noted that the OAH had recently issued the implementation licence for the plant’s upgrade, allowing for the start of groundwork at the site.

“The construction stage of the Paks nuclear plant can finally become more intensive and dynamic,” Szijjártó said. “This will ensure that the new blocks can be built and go online by 2030, allowing us to take important steps towards ensuring Hungary’s energy security.”

The two new reactor blocks will allow Hungary to be immune to the long-term uncertainties of the international energy markets and will guarantee the country’s secure energy supply, he said.

Szijjártó on Tuesday is scheduled to attend an informal meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Prague after holding talks with Czechia’s transport minister, Prague’s new archbishop, Andrej Babis, head of the opposition ANO movement, and Tomio Okamura, head of the opposition SPD party.

fuel_rods_reactor_paks_nuclear_power_plant
Read also Fuel rods used in Paks to be delivered via Romania, Bulgaria

Important milestone reached in the Paks nuclear power plant project

Paks nuclear power plant third nuclear power plant

The National Atomic Energy Authority (OAH) has issued the implementation licence for the upgrade of Hungary’s sole nuclear power plant in Paks, paving the way for the construction stage of the project, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said on Friday, adding that the plant’s two new reactor blocks could be operational by 2030.

The project has arrived at “a hugely important milestone”, as projects of this nature need to obtain thousands of permits, out of which this latest one is the most important, the foreign ministry cited Péter Szijjártó as saying on Facebook.

The new licence will allow the upgrade project to transition from the preparatory stage to the implementation stage, of which there will be visible signs at the construction site, Szijjártó said. The more than 400,000-page licence request had been under review by Hungarian and international experts for two years before being approved.

The implementation licence certifies that the Paks plant’s new blocks meet the highest-level and strictest Hungarian and international regulations and requirements, the minister said, adding that this was completed with fire safety, disaster management, environmental protection and mining supervision approvals.

Szijjártó said the target for putting the two new blocks online by 2030 remained realistic.

“This is how we will be able to ensure Hungary’s energy security in the long term, protect Hungarians from extreme price fluctuations on the international energy market, in other words, maintain our efforts to keep utility prices low,” Szijjártó said.

Paks nuclear power plant third nuclear power plant
Read also Non-EU citizens welcomed to work on the Paks II nuclear plant project

Non-EU citizens welcomed to work on the Paks II nuclear plant project

Paks nuclear power plant third nuclear power plant

The government allowed even non-EU citizens to come and work on the Paks nuclear power plant expansion project without a permit.

According to hvg.hu, the Orbán administration published the relevant decree yesterday evening. Thanks to that, the workers of non-EU countries will not need a residence permit for employment.

The non-EU citizens, including not only Serbians or Ukrainians but also Indian, Pakistani or Turkish nationals, will be able to work for the subcontractors involved in the Paks II nuclear power plant expansion project.

The project aims to construct two additional reactors to the existing four at Paks. The technology will remain Russian, and the loan covering the project’s costs comes from Moscow.

László Toroczkai, leader of Mi Hazánk Mozgalom and the mayor of Ásotthalom
Read alsoRadical party: ‘Cheap Paks energy could cover total need of Hungarian households’

Radical party: ‘Cheap Paks energy could cover total need of Hungarian households’

László Toroczkai, leader of Mi Hazánk Mozgalom and the mayor of Ásotthalom

The Paks nuclear power plant has the capacity to provide energy to cover the total need of all Hungarian households, the leader of the opposition Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party said on Wednesday.

“Using the cheap energy produced by the Paks plant, Hungary’s energy crisis could be solved,” László Toroczkai told a press conference.

Mi Hazánk rejects all sanctions against Russia while supports importing natural gas from that country to Hungary, he said. The party at the same time rejects any EU mechanism involving to transfer any amount of imported gas to Germany, which “has totally ruined its energy policy situation with wrong political decisions”, Toroczkai added.

He pledged to organise nationwide demonstrations “if the government does not start managing the [energy] crisis using our proposals”.

Toroczkai said Mi Hazánk will on Thursday send a letter to the prime minister containing their proposals which include imposing “a digital tax” on the net revenues of tech companies that “somehow always find a way to avoid paying taxes”. The party also proposes imposing a tax on casinos, international food delivery companies and the hundred most wealthy Hungarians, he said.

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Read alsoHow much does Russian gas cost for Hungary and how much would the American cost?

Russia’s construction of a nuclear power plant in Hungary accepted by the IAEA, says minister on NPT conference

new york szijjártó

The international community should use every means to prevent the further spread and use of nuclear weapons, the foreign minister said in New York late on Monday, adding that “no geopolitical games” should be allowed “to the detriment of Hungary”.

In his address to a review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Péter Szijjártó noted Hungary’s security, economic and energy challenges due to the war in Ukraine, according to a foreign ministry statement.

Hungary, he added, has so far received 870,000 refugees from Ukraine. He called on the international community to focus their efforts on achieving peace in Ukraine as “the only solution” to the problems arising from the conflict.

The Ukraine war makes it even more important to prevent nuclear arms from being further deployed in the world, Szijjártó said, and warned that the conflict posed an increased threat of nuclear escalation.

Hungary’s interests would be severely undermined if the world were again divided into blocs, he said, stressing the importance of maintaining a dialogue between East and West, especially on strategic issues. The breakdown of dialogue between the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council was, he said, was “regrettable”, and he called on the P5 to resume talks to avoid possible further tensions.

Meanwhile, Szijjártó said the peaceful uses of nuclear energy more crucial than ever before in view of the current crisis. He said nuclear energy production was cost-effective, climate-friendly, secure and stable, and could reduce Hungary’s vulnerability to fluctuations on the global energy markets. Possible sanctions concerning nuclear energy must be avoided, he said, adding that such measures would curb sovereign powers to define countries’ energy mix.

He also added that the upgrade project of Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant was fully in line with requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The minister called for full commitment to the NPT, and said Hungary would assume its share of related joint efforts.

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Crucial political crisis caused by war does not produce nuclear energy crisis

It is crucial the political crisis linked to the war in Ukraine should not end up producing a nuclear energy crisis, as the latter would be impossible to solve, Szijjártó said.

Solving the current energy supply crisis and fulfilling ambitious environmental protection goals are reliant on the use of nuclear energy, the minister said in a statement.

He called for a “fair” approach to nuclear energy so that Hungary should not suffer any kind of discrimination.

Szijjártó took part in the general debate of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference before meeting his Argentinian and Bangladeshi counterparts, as well as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi.

The minister said several international organisations and countries shared Hungary’s standpoint, adding that cooperation between Hungary and the IAEA was “excellent”.

He said the IAEA had an ever growing role in protecting the peaceful, civilian use of nuclear energy.

He said a deal was reached with Argentina, Bangladesh and the IAEA to join forces “to ensure that nuclear energy does not at all fall prey to the political crisis … taking place in the world.”

fuel_rods_reactor_paks_nuclear_power_plant
Read also Fuel rods used in Paks to be delivered via Romania, Bulgaria

Opposition: Orbán lied about everything during the campaign

Viktor Orbán

Hungary’s opposition parties on Friday criticised Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent comments on jobs and the changes to household utility price caps and the small business tax, saying he had “admitted” that the government was “incapable of protecting families”.

In a Facebook post reacting to Orbán’s interview to public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió, Socialist Party co-leader Bertalan Tóth said the prime minister had “irresponsibly dished out handouts” before the election in the interest of keeping his power “and lied that this was sustainable”. “They lied about stability, utility prices, the price of Russian energy, the state of emergency and just about everything,” Toth insisted.

He said the minimum wage should be exempt from personal income tax, taxes on low incomes should be cut, while low pensions and the wages of public service workers, teachers and health-care workers should be increased. Tóth also criticised Orbán, who he said “has been living off taxpayer money for 32 years”, over his reasoning for the need to change the rules around the itemised tax for small businesses (kata).

Opposition Momentum said the prime minister’s radio interview was “a clear admission that the government can’t and doesn’t want to protect Hungarian families from the cost of living crisis”. Momentum said Hungary’s economic stability could only be guaranteed by an agreement with the European Union and a commitment to carrying out structural reforms so that the country could have access to the funds that could be spent on hospitals, schools and jobs.

LMP co-leader Máté Kanász-Nagy urged an end to Hungary’s dependence on hydrocarbons. He called on the government to lift all bans and restrictions on the installation of renewable energy systems, introduce a building insulation scheme based on social considerations and

scrap the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant.

The leftist Democratic Coalition said Orbán had admitted that the government “won’t protect jobs”. Balázs Barkóczi, the party’s spokesman, told a press conference that “the prime minister knows what he’s talking about, given that he’s just taken away the livelihood of 450,000 taxpayers”. “First they let Orbán’s inflation loose on the country, then imposed a brutal package of austerity measures with the windfall taxes, the decision to scrap the kata tax and by raising utility costs,” Barkóczi said.

Fuel rods used in Paks to be delivered via Romania, Bulgaria

fuel_rods_reactor_paks_nuclear_power_plant

Hungary and Romania are in talks on creating new transport routes for nuclear fuel rods and increasing the capacity of the gas interconnector between the two countries, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Bucharest on Tuesday.

After talks with his Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Lucian Aurescu, Szijjártó told a joint press conference that both countries had made significant efforts to strengthen energy security and diversify resources.

The ministers discussed increasing the capacity of the Romanian-Hungarian interconnector. This year, Romania received more than 600 million cubic meters of natural gas from Hungary through an interconnector with a maximum capacity of 2.6 billion cubic meters, Szijjártó noted. Hungary received 300 million cubic meters through the interconnector, which has a maximum capacity of 1.7 billion cubic meters in that direction, he said. The capacity from Romania to Hungary is planned to be increased to 3 billion cubic meters in the long run, he said.

In view of interruptions of supply on Nord Stream-1, the gas pipeline connecting Russia with Germany, Hungary’s government has decided to boost southern supply lines, he said. “Southern routes are worth boosting also because new resources can only be expected from there, whether through LNG terminals in Greece or natural gas coming from Turkey or Azerbaijan,” he said.

Also,

Hungary has received fuel rods via Ukraine so far, and has now started talks on replacing that route with one through Bulgaria and Romania,

he said. Hungary and Romania are facing “the same threats to their physical, economic and energy supply security in these critical times”, Szijjártó said.

Hungary, in particular, is under dual pressure from the 830,000 refugees arriving “from the East” and the 110,000 illegal immigrants it had stopped at its southern borders this year, he said. “We are having to face outrageous aggression and violence on our southern border, as groups of migrants are arming themselves — while they are using those weapons against each other at times, they are also threatening the forces that protect the Hungarian border,” he said.

“We will help everyone fleeing the war in Ukraine, but the strong protection on our southern borders conveys the message to illegal migrants that they should not come here because we won’t let them in, no matter how violent they are,” he said.

Regarding bilateral cooperation between Romania and Hungary, Szijjártó said bilateral trade hit a record 10-11 billion euros last year, and has grown by 30 percent so far this year.

Hungarian companies such as MOL, OTP and Richter play an important role in Romania’s economic success,

he said.

Hungary and Romania both support the European integration of the Western Balkans, he said. Meanwhile, both have offered to open transport routes for grain stranded in Ukraine due to the war, he added.

Later on Tuesday, Szijjártó is scheduled to meet Deputy Prime Minister Hunor Kelemen, Energy Minister Virgil-Daniel Popescu, as well as Constantin Cadariu, the minister responsible for tourism and entrepreneurship, Sports Minister Károly Eduárd Novák, and Attila Cseke, the minister for development and public administration.

Government: Russia delivers 85 pc of the gas consumed in Hungary

gas energy kitchen

The government is fulfilling environmental targets while boosting competitiveness, an official of the ministry of technology and industry told Mediaworks in an interview, published in daily Magyar Nemzet on Monday.

State secretary Zsófia Koncz said that protecting the utility cut scheme and developing new green energy resources were among the most important tasks of the ministry. In recent years, the government carried out large investment projects for energy diversification, she said. Whereas in 2010, Hungary only had two interconnectors with neighbouring countries, currently it is connected with six of the seven neighbouring countries, she added.

The economy continues to be mostly dependent on Russian gas, as are Germany and several other European countries due to geographical characteristics, the structure of the market and existing infrastructure, she said. Weaning the country from Russian gas would be a lengthy process taking several years but the achievements of recent years, such as the expanded infrastructure and new interconnectors now enable Hungary to import natural gas from several other resources, she added. “In physical terms, we are currently able to receive supplies from any direction, the only condition left is to sign the corresponding agreements,” she said.

Currenly, however,

Russia delivers some 85 percent of the natural gas consumed in Hungary,

and so it is crucial that Hungary receives the supplies. “Gas is vitally important not only to us but to the whole of Europe and a gas embargo would destroy the economy of the entire continent,” she added. “The war and sanctions by Brussels have already caused a huge amount of damage. The price of electricity grew five-fold and the price of gas six-fold in Europe and there is no end in sight. Without maintaining the utility price caps, this would also burden the Hungarian population,” she said.

Hungary’s sole nuclear power plant in Paks, which provides most of the country’s energy needs,

will be “indispensable” in future, Koncz said. The importance of cheap nuclear energy has finally been recognized by the EU, she added, noting that according to the EU’s taxonomy regulation nuclear energy and natural gas can be qualified as clean energy resources.

Asked about the future use of renewable energy sources, Koncz said that Hungary would mainly aim to increase its capacity in solar energy. “It currently seems feasible that a planned six-fold increase in the volume of solar energy production by 2030 could be already achieved in 2025,” she said, noting that the country’s solar energy capacities had been increased tenfold in the past five years.

Truck bringing supplies
Read alsoWill Hungary become the next major battery producer?

Minister: migrants at Hungary’s borders “have no right to cross”

Hungary is “under simultaneous pressure from the east and from the south”, the foreign minister told public Kossuth Rádió on Sunday morning.

Péter Szijjártó said that some 12,000-13,000 refugees were arriving daily from war-stricken Ukraine, adding that “when fleeing from war, you cannot go anywhere but to a neighbouring country”. On the other hand, migrants at Hungary’s southern borders “have no right to cross” since they “violated the borders of several safe countries including Serbia and Hungary”.

Hungary will maintain strict border controls,

therefore “there is a great need” to set up an independent force for that purpose, he said.

Besides the east, NATO should also focus on challenges in the south, with special regard to an increasing threat of terrorism, and a possible famine due to interrupted grain supplies from Ukraine, which could trigger “unprecedented” waves of migration, Szijjártó warned.

“Peace is in Hungary’s interest in every possible aspect,” the minister said, adding that “each minute of the war in Ukraine poses a security threat”. The Hungarian military, therefore, needs to be developed, “to which end defence spending will reach 2 percent of GDP next year”, he said.

An atmosphere of war has overtaken NATO, Szijjártó said but added that “luckily the position prevails that everything must be done to avoid a direct conflict between NATO and Russia”. He called it a “wise decision” that

NATO as an alliance will not send weapons to Ukraine “as that would threaten an even greater tragedy”.

Concerning energy, Szijjártó said that in view of “energy prices earlier thought inconcieavable” those countries will be safe in future that are able to produce sufficient energy for their own consumption. The upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant “will be of tremendous help” to Hungary, he added.

The Hungarian government is “continously speeding up the project” so that the two new blocks could start production in 2030, Szijjártó said, adding that the upgraded plant and solar developments would bring the country “very near to self-sustenance” in terms of electricity.

Construction at Paks is not hindered by European sanctions against Russia, as peaceful use of nuclear energy is “not impacted in any way” by those restrictions, Szijjártó said.

Construction works at Paks nuclear plant expected to start this fall

Paks nuclear power plant

The construction phase of the Paks 2 nuclear plant may start in September, Péter Szijjártó, the minister for foreign affairs and trade, said on Friday, after talks with Rosatom head Alexey Likhachev in Istanbul, where he said all pending issues had been cleared in advance of the new phase.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that Rosatom was providing the documentation necessary for another four permits from the National Nuclear Energy Office (OAH) before construction can start. “If all goes according to today’s agreement, it is entirely possible that the next phase will start in September,” the foreign ministry quoted Szijjártó as saying.

The aim is for the two new blocks to start operating in 2030,

raising the plant’s capacity from 2,000MW to 4,400MW, he said.

“Hungary will take a big leap towards electricity independence; an enormous advantage at a time of irrationally growing prices in the global market,” Szijjártó said. “We won’t be as vulnerable to the hitches and crises of the international market as we are now, and much less than many other countries are,” he said.

European Union sanctions against Russia specifically exempt the peaceful use of nuclear energy from all restrictions, Szijjártó said. Accordingly, Rosatom is not on the EU’s sanctions list, he noted. Szijjarto also announced that Gergely Jákli, the former head of the Hungarian Eximbank, will take over as head of the Paks 2 company.

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Read alsoBrand new sports hotel opens in Hungary! – PHOTOS

Melt trap for Paks 2 nuclear power plant authorised

paks ii visual plan

The National Atomic Energy Office (OAH) has approved the application for the manufacturing authorisation for the melt trap of the Paks nuclear power plant upgrade, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Istanbul on Thursday.

Szijjártó called the permit “essentially the most important for nuclear safety”, adding that the melt trap is one of the critical components of the reactors. In the event of an emergency, the melt trap is designed to hold the melt of a reactor’s core and to prevent radioactive substances from leaving the containment of the reactor.

The development is important in light of the war in Ukraine and geopolitical shifts which are creating

serious global energy supply challenges,

the minister said. “In the coming years, those countries that can produce as much of their own energy as possible will feel secure,” he said. “The Paks plant has a key role to play in this.”

Mi Hazánk urges state support for defence industry developments

Opposition Mi Hazánk has called for greater state support for the development of Hungary’s defence industry. László Toroczkai, the party’s deputy leader, told a press conference on Thursday that Hungary’s defence industry should be revived based on research and development.

Ruling Fidesz, he said, should “change its age-old practice of making any form of economic development dependent on multinational, global companies of German origin.”

Instead, the state should set up companies and research centres aimed at boosting the defence industry,

he added. Such a move would improve Hungary’s defence capabilities while creating excellent business opportunities, he said. He also reiterated the party’s demand for Hungary to set up a well-paid border guard which is independent of the police.

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Read also Hungary to organize the Summer Olympics in 2036?

Russian gas supplies to Hungary resume via the Turkish Stream

Oil and gas pipe Russian oil

Delivery of natural gas to Hungary resumed on the Turkish Stream pipeline on Monday evening after scheduled maintenance works, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said after talks with energy experts in Budapest on Tuesday.

The pipeline delivers natural gas to Hungary from Russia via Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia, he said. The pipeline will ensure that Hungary receives the full amount of gas to be supplied under the long-term agreement it concluded with Russia last September, he said.

Noting reduced Russian gas deliveries to western Europe due to “maintenance difficulties on Nord Stream 1”, Szijjártó said Hungary was currently receiving about half the usual amount of gas via Austria. The missing 1.3 million cubic meters of gas daily can be easily procured from the market, he said.

“Hungarian supply security is not at any sort of risk,” he said.

Hungary is also ahead in filling up its gas storages, with reserves already on stock up at 23 percent of annual demand, as against 15 percent on average in European Union member states, he said.

Crude deliveries are also stable and secure through the Friendship pipeline, he said.

Meanwhile, the government is working “full steam” to prepare the upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant, he said. Szijjártó said he is scheduled to meet Russian energy giant Rosatom’s CEO in Istanbul on Friday, to review the situation. “The aim is to have the new blocks up and running by 2030,” he said.

“While Europe is facing serious energy security challenges, energy supply to Hungary is stable and safe,” the foreign minister said.

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Read alsoHungary made the right decision to sign gas supply agreement with Moscow, says minister

Government committed to extending Paks nuclear plant’s lifespan

Paks nuclear power plant

Hungary’s government is committed to extending the lifespan of the Paks nuclear power plant, László Palkovics, the minister of technology and industry, said in Paks, in central Hungary, on Friday.

Addressing a press conference after talks with the CEO of MVM Paksi Atomerőmű, the plant’s operator, Palkovics said all conditions were in place to extend the plant’s lifespan, adding that its lifespan could be extended by between 10 and 20 years. The four blocks at Paks, each with a nominal capacity of 500MW, were built between 1982 and 1987. Their 30-year lifespans were extended by 20 years between 2012 and 2017.

In addition to extending the plant’s lifespan, the government is also planning upgrades to increase the plant’s efficiency, as well as new energy storage solutions, Palkovics said. If the plant has 20 more years left in it during which it can operate safely at high efficiency, then its lifespan should be extended, the minister said.

“We don’t see any technical issues that would have a significant effect on the extension of the plant’s lifespan,” he said, adding he was hopeful that Hungary could renegotiate the conditions of the extension in Brussels.

Palkovics said a technical, economic, legal and training working group will be set up to make preparations of the extension of the plant’s lifespan.

The minister said he had asked the operator’s CEO to have the documentation needed to launch the project ready within two weeks so that it could go before the government.

“The process will be fully transparent; we want to carry out every part of the project with full publicity,” Palkovics said. Meanwhile, he noted that the European Green Deal required Hungary to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, which meant investing in electrical energy. Hungary is Europe’s most attractive investment destination, with an investment rate of 29 percent of GDP, Palkovics said. He also said that Hungary’s photovoltaic capacity would increase from the current 6GW to 12-14GW by 2030.

Paks nuclear power plant’s Russian upgrade gets another key permit

Paks Nuclear Plant Hungary

The upgrade of Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant has reached another milestone: it has received the soil stabilisation permit from the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Saturday.

One of the most serious crises in the world is the energy crisis, Szijjártó said in a video on Facebook, adding that, in the coming years, it will be an advantage if a country is able to produce a substantial part of the energy it uses.

“We, Hungarians, are building the Paks nuclear power plant so that from 2030 we can free ourselves from all uncertainties of the international energy market, and we can maintain our utility price cut scheme in the long run,”

Szijjártó said.

The diaphragm wall construction permit (which has already been obtained) and the soil stabilisation permit are the most important prerequisites for the implementation permit of the project, Szijjarto said. After the latter has been obtained, “real construction work” can start, he said.

paks ii visual plan
Read alsoHungary to replace Russian with American nuclear fuel with EU help?

Bangladeshi foreign minister AK Abdul Momen visits Hungary

bangladesh

Hungary and Bangladesh are intensifying nuclear energy cooperation, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said after meeting his Bangladeshi counterpart in Budapest.

At a joint press conference with AK Abdul Momen, Szijjártó noted the new nuclear power plant being built in Bangladesh involves the same type of reactors as those being installed in Hungary’s expanded Paks nuclear plant by the same contractor, and given the importance of the investment, developing international nuclear industry cooperation was a top priority.

The minister announced the signing of a nuclear training agreement that provides

thirty Hungarian higher-education scholarships to Bangladeshi students per year, initially reserved for burgeoning nuclear professionals.

Also, the agreement relates to sharing knowledge and experiences related to nuclear power plant construction with a view to speeding up the Paks investment. The first Bangladeshi reactor will be operational in 2023, while the second will go online in 2024, he noted, adding that sharing of experiences with regard to construction and operations was highly important.

Szijjártó said the Paks construction must be completed by 2030.

“We’re striving to ensure the supply of energy in the long term, and the best and most efficient way to achieve that is by boosting our own nuclear capacity,” he said.

The government has opened a consular office in Dhaka, he noted, adding that trade cooperation was growing fast, with Hungarian-Bangladeshi trade volume increasing by 40 percent last year.

The Bangladeshi minister praised bilateral ties, adding that political stability in both Bangladesh and Hungary had helped to advance economic developments. He also thanked the Budapest government for donating coronavirus vaccines.

As we wrote earlier, the work of a group of Hungarian virologists could cease the spread of a deadly virus. The team is currently in Bangladesh to test a new method of controlling the dissemination of the Nipah virus, details HERE.

PM Johnson’s vote of confidence against him

Meanwhile, Szijjártó, welcoming the survival of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s vote of confidence against him, said Hungary-UK ties stood in good stead. He stressed, however, that his comment was “purely personal” and that Hungary did not comment on the internal business of other countries.

“I know Boris Johnson well; we served as foreign ministers at the same time. I know that his approach to Hungary is respectful and I know how much, as foreign minister, he worked to develop Hungarian-British relations. And as prime minister, his commitment has remained unchanged … I look at this issue from the point of view of the future of Hungarian-British relations and based on something of a personal friendship,”

he said.

Hungary to speed up Paks expansion!

Paks nuclear power plant third nuclear power plant

Hungary will speed up the expansion of the Paks nuclear power station and solar energy investments in order to make 90 percent of electricity production carbon neutral by 2030, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday.

Szijjártó told Indian public media in Delhi that in an effort to speed up solar energy investments Hungary has joined the International Solar Alliance founded by France which aims to promote the implementation of technologies and investments for solar energy use.

“The same way as India places great emphasis on nuclear energy, we in Hungary will speed up the construction of the Paks nuclear power station so that it can start operations by 2030

and we will speed up our solar energy investments in order to ensure that nuclear energy and solar energy together enable us to make electricity production carbon neutral by 2030,” he said.

Szijjártó, who earlier in the day attended an India-Hungary business forum, noted that India’s was the sixth largest economy in the world and achieved “incredible economic growth” in recent years.

Hungary’s economy has also benefited from the fast growth of India because several Indian company groups carried out considerable investments in Hungary, employing several thousand people, while Hungarian companies were increasingly successful on the Indian market.

Trade between the two countries broke a “massive record” last year, nearing 1 billion dollars for the first time in history, following 26 percent increase, he said.

paks ii visual plan
Read alsoPaks plant upgrade project obtains permit for diaphragm wall construction

Paks plant upgrade project obtains permit for diaphragm wall construction

paks ii visual plan

Hungary’s National Atomic Energy Office (OAH) has issued a permit for the construction of the diaphragm wall for the two new blocks at the Paks power plant, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjárto, who is in charge of the project, said on Thursday.

The permit is a “milestone” in the preparations for the construction of the new blocks, Szijjárto said in a video on Facebook, calling the diaphragm wall a “critical element” of the construction works. The diaphragm wall prevents an inrush of groundwater into the construction site and ensures that the construction of the new blocks does not disrupt the operation of the existing four blocks, he said.

Once the final construction plan is approved, the construction phase of the project can begin,

Szijjárto said. The minister said only the countries that can produce a significant portion of the energy they consume themselves would be able to endure Europe’s looming energy crisis.

The Paks plant is “critically important” in allowing Hungary to take another step towards self-sufficiency, towards ending dependence on the international energy market and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the government’s utility price cut scheme, Szijjárto said, adding that the project should be completed by 2030.

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BREAKING NEWS – Orbán: Hungarian government declares state of emergency

orbán

The government is declaring a state of emergency in view of the armed conflict in a neighbouring country, starting from midnight on Tuesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a video posted on Facebook.

Speaking hours after parliament approved an amendment to the Fundamental Law determining armed conflict, war, or humanitarian disaster in a neighbouring country as causes of such a measure, Orbán said the war in Ukraine presented a constant danger to “Hungary, our physical safety, the energy supplies and financial safety of families and the economy.”

“The government sworn in today has started working immediately. In view of the war in a neighbouring country, we did not waste a single second. A war nobody can see the end of yet,”

he said.

“We have seen that the war and sanctions from Brussels have brought about a great economic upheaval and drastic price rises. The world is on the brink of an economic crisis. Hungary has to stay out of this war and has to protect the financial security of families,” he said.

To do so, the government needs to be able to make decisions and act swiftly. The state of emergency, similarly to that introduced during the pandemic, will make it possible for the government to react quickly and to use “all methods at its disposal” to protect Hungary and Hungarians, he said.

“I’m going to brief you on our first decisions tomorrow,” Orban said.

Orbán: Responsible, ‘feisty’ government needed

Hungary needs a feisty, responsible government that unites the country while showing the necessary strength, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in parliament on Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of the oath-taking ceremony of his fifth government, Orban said the new cabinet’s tasks are outlined by “dangers and especially the war”.

The government will have to preserve and strengthen the physical, material and cultural security of Hungary and the Carpathian Basin, support Hungarian families, boost Hungarian companies and keep the economy on a path of growth, Orbán said.

Members of the new government were troubled with various problems, he added.

No government since 1990 has received as “great and united” a mandate as the fourth consecutive Orbán government, the prime minister said. Its members will have to “justify this trust, which was partly earned, partly given in advance,” he said.

“That will be especially taxing, as we barely left the coronavirus pandemic behind, we have a war in our neighbourhood, and Brussels has got its wires crossed, so we cannot expect help from there,” he said.

The strong mandate and the “uncertain future” has increased the government’s responsibility, he added.

The “decade of dangers, uncertainty and wars” of 2020-2030 has so far brought about a “flood of refugees, an unprecedented rise in energy and fuel prices and inflation,” Orbán said. Meanwhile, the largest geopolitical reorganisation of the 21st century is looming, along with a global energy and food crisis, he said. A destabilisation of “vulnerable countries with large populations” may bring other waves of migration and so growing challenges for the “richer part of the world, including Hungary”, he said.

All that would prove a challenge even “for a robust, eminently led European Union”. Instead, the bloc is showing “delays, confounded ideologies and irrational decisions,” he said.

“At such times, Hungary cannot afford irresponsibility, division and weakness,” he said.

Orbán said he has asked Judit Varga to continue to serve at the helm of the justice ministry.

“The justice minister will have the task of enforcing the country’s fundamental law and safeguarding constitutionality, which is why I have assigned the minister the right of veto over any proposals submitted by any other ministry,”

he said. The ministry will also be in charge of the government’s EU relations, an area of responsibility “not envied by any other minister”, Orbán said, praising Varga for being a staunch advocate of Hungary’s national interests in debates with Brussels. He said this was expected from Varga in the future as well.

Introducing Sándor Pintér, who will continue to serve as interior minister, Orbán noted that he and Pinter “have served together over 16 years” during which period the minister had performed every task assigned to him with “exemplary precision”. He restored public safety, radically reduced crime, significantly repressed crimes against property and human life and renewed and rejuvenated the police force to the extent that it has “regained its honor and dignity”, Orbán said. He said that the country’s law enforcement agencies had earned longstanding merits during the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing refugee crisis in Ukraine, adding that Hungary would continue to need these capabilities in the coming period. The prime minister also noted Pinter’s achievements in launching the fostered work scheme which had helped hundreds of thousands of unemployed people find jobs in the primary labour market, as well as in managing the restructuring of the Hungarian municipal system.

In politics, experience is the greatest asset, “it is what really matters”, the prime minister said, adding that this was why Pinter had been assigned to oversee “the most difficult areas”.

Introducing Zsolt Semjén, who will serve as minister responsible for policies for Hungarian communities abroad and policies for national minorities and church relations as well as church diplomacy, Orbán said he would be expected to “make the idea of the united Hungarian nation enshrined in the Fundamental Law a reality”. Orbán said

the co-ruling Christian Democrats formed the “intellectual-ideological” core of the government.

János Csák, who will head a new cultural and innovation ministry, will be in charge of family policy, culture, higher education, vocational training and innovation, the prime minister said. The head of the cultural and innovation ministry needs to be someone who is familiar with the business world, “doesn’t get lost in the modern maze of intellectual debates”, is disciplined but at the same time “looks for ways we can go beyond the limits of today’s reality”, Orbán said.

Turning to Mihály Varga, who will continue as finance minister,

Orbán praised his “forward-looking rigour” which “allowed Hungary to uphold the balance between growth and fiscal discipline” during the pandemic.

The same will be expected of Varga now when the war presents a new challenge to the economy, the prime minister added.

Introducing László Palkovics, the minister for technology and industry, Orbán said he will be expected to carry on with the shift started over the past few years and to develop Hungary’s energy system in a way that it meets the challenges of the new era. The ministry will be expected to address the situation created by rising consumption and prices while reducing Hungary’s harmful emissions, Orbán said.

István Nagy, the minister of agriculture, has been tasked with protecting Hungary from the effects of the looming global food crisis and further strengthening the position of Hungarian agriculture, he said.

Orbán said Tibor Navracsics, who has been appointed minister for regional development and the utilisation of EU funds, had the best chance of holding his own “between the mill wheels of Brussels bureaucrats and Hungarian MEPs”.

Introducing Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the new defence minister, Orbán said Hungary’s Zrínyi defence development scheme could make Hungary’s military one of the most competent in the region. The war next door “shows how irresponsible it was to have the military and defence take a back seat on the continent”, the prime minister said.

Orbán said he had tasked Antal Rogán, the head of the cabinet office, with communicating the ideas and aims behind the government’s decisions to the public.

János Lázár, who will head the new ministry of construction and investment, has been tasked with ensuring that state resources spent on investments are used efficiently, renewing construction regulations and “the protection of our built heritage”, the prime minister said.

Orbán said he expected of Márton Nagy, minister without portfolio responsible for economic development, to “help Hungary’s development with innovative economic policy decisions rooted in Hungarian logic [even if] some of them will not help him make friends.”

The European economy is in “great trouble”, and Hungary will need new, unorthodox, innovative steps if it is to develop further, he said.

“The escape from the debt trap, the change in tax policy and the price caps were such measures,” he said.

Regarding the appointment of Péter Szijjártó, who is staying on as minister of foreign affairs and trade, Orbán said he had asked him to continue to represent Hungarian interests “as inexhaustibly as we have come to expect him to”, to bolster Hungary’s relations with its allies and find new opportunities for trade and investment.

In the new cycle,

Szijjártó will also be responsible for the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant, he said.

Gergely Gulyás, the head of the prime minister’s office, will be responsible for “strategic planning … as he will have to see the entire country, rather than just one ministry.” Gulyas will coordinate the work of individual ministries and “represent a culture of respect and cooperation, and work on techniques for that.” As the prime minister’s office “doubles as the government’s lightning rod”, Gulyas will have to also “bravely represent the government’s arguments in intellectual debates at home and abroad,” he said.

The coming years, “fraught with dangers”, will find a “strong, capable, resilient government in Hungary, with a clear vision of the future,” Orbán said.

“Go Hungary, go Hungarians,”

Orbán said.