Poland
V4 countries stands for stopping the war in Ukraine, says FM Szijjártó in London
The Visegrad Group stands for peace and stopping the war in Ukraine as soon as possible to ensure security in central Europe, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in London on Tuesday.
Szijjártó spoke ahead of a summit between the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.
The region is bearing the brunt of the humanitarian burden of the war, he noted.
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary have already received “a great many” refugees, some of whom have travelled on to the Czech Republic, among other countries, he said.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has yet to end, as “many countries are still battling that challenge and lack the requisite vaccines”, Szijjártó said. Hungary is donating another 100,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to Thailand to help raise the vaccination rate. With that shipment, Hungary’s vaccine donations to Thailand will have reached 500,000, he said.
In total, Hungary has so far donated 4.2 million doses to 17 countries, he said.
“Raising the vaccination rate worldwide will curb the risk of new variants, so we can leave at least that challenge behind us. Security challenges are plenty without a health-care and economic crisis before us, too,” he said.
Read alsoUkrainian refugees on Hungarian hospitality
Foreign affairs committee head: preserving Polish-Hungarian relations important
Supporting peace efforts in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is of key importance, Zsolt Németh, the head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said on Wednesday.
Speaking to MTI after a closed-door committee meeting with national security officials, Németh said the conflict could escalate in the coming days, making it more difficult to achieve peace. This was why, he added, it was crucial to push for peace talks.
Németh welcomed reports that Russian and Ukrainian delegates were set to hold a second round of talks on Wednesday.
Noting the unified stance taken by the international community on the war, Németh said it would be important for Hungary to achieve a national consensus on the issue given that it was in the middle of an election campaign. “This won’t depend on Fidesz-Christian Democrats alone,” he said.
Németh said Europe and the European Union should have taken the Russia-Ukraine conflict “far more seriously”. The war has set off a major global shift in international politics, he said. He welcomed the united stance taken by Europe and the international community, underlining the importance of
“preserving this unity in the Visegrád Group, particularly Polish-Hungarian relations in the coming period”.
The Fidesz politician also stressed the need for Hungary to keep an eye on western Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region whose large ethnic Hungarian population was faced with a large wave of internal refugees. The humanitarian problems in the region will therefore require special attention in the coming period, Németh said.
Hungary has taken in more than 100,000 refugees from Ukraine so far, he said, emphasising that the country must continue to handle the challenge with humanity.
Read alsoHungarian-Ukrainian border: more and more people are coming
Polish min at V4 meeting: “Warsaw perceives double standards, too”
The Polish government has also perceived the application of double standards within the European Union and rejected external attempts to exert political pressure on the country, the Polish minister of funds and regional policy said after a ministerial session of the V4 countries in Budapest on Friday.
The decisions of Brussels are often motivated by political considerations even in areas where such considerations have no place, Grzegorz Puda said. Some forces have aversion to see the pace of Hungary and Poland’s development and therefore tend to portray both countries in false colours before the western public, he added.
Hungarian-Polish cooperation may be conducive to important initiatives within the European Union, Poda said, adding that it is important for the two countries to represent values that the leaders of other member states do not dare to stand by.
Read alsoSenior V4 and French lawmakers discuss security policy in Budapest
Read alsoHungary’s Chief of Staff: V4 cooperation reliable in long term
Hungary’s Chief of Staff: V4 cooperation reliable in long term
The Visegrád Group cooperation is reliable, non-partisan, and respects the interests of all member states, and has become an important factor in the European Union, the Hungarian prime minister’s chief of staff said on Friday in Budapest.
Gergely Gulyás told a press conference after a meeting of the EU affairs ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia that all V4 states were committed to the EU, and see no alternative to “institutional European cooperation”.
At the same time, Gulyás noted that cohesion, the reduction of development gaps between various EU member states, is enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty as a primary objective of the EU.
The goal of Friday’s meeting, Gulyás said, was to “coordinate and share best practices at a time of intense negotiations with the European Commission” on funding for the 2021-2027 financial cycle.
The Visegrád countries have mostly submitted their planned operative programmes, “and technological and professional talks are proceeding well with the EC”. “If politics doesn’t interfere, we hope to achieve a partnership agreement on the next financial cycle within one or two months,” he said, adding that this was important because most member states tended to pre-finance their projects.
Read also Will Hungary send soldiers to fight in Ukraine?
He said the conclusion of the partnership agreement was “not behind schedule”, noting that in the previous funding cycle, the signing of the pact had come a year and a half after the approval of the budget.
Concerning the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund, Gulyás said the reason why member states had agreed to jointly take out a loan was because it was a “one-time solution” which the EU had said was necessary for the economic recovery.
Gulyás also said that there was a “serious distrust” of the EC on the parts of Hungary and Poland because the Commission had yet to approve their recovery plans “for political reasons”. He added, at the same time, that the agreement with the EC could be signed soon, and the projects were being pre-financed.
“If we have to wait for the Hungarian elections for this to happen then so be it,” he said.
Gulyás said the V4 were effective when it came to the drawdown of EU funds from the previous funding period. Hungary has drawn down 71.9 percent of the funds it is entitled to, he said, noting that it was the fifth most effective member state in this respect, “competing with Poland”.
He said V4 cooperation on cohesion policy had always been close, adding that this was “a big help in the talks with the EC”.
Read alsoSecretary: Hungary’s electoral system among most transparent
“We trust that it will remain that way in the future as well, and that the region will remain an engine of the EU’s economic growth and progress,” he said.
Daniela Grabmullerova, the Czech deputy minister for regional development, said V4 cooperation in “delicate issues concerning the European Union” was inspiring. The Czech Republic will draw on that experience during its upcoming EU presidency, when it aims to bolster the development of cohesion policy, she said.
Grabmullerova noted that cohesion funds amounted to 40 percent of the resources for community investments in the Czech Republic. The government hopes that the EU will approve its programme during the spring, she said.
Slovak Deputy Prime Minister Veronika Remisova called for the continuation of the cohesion policy, “an important pillar of the European Union”. Slovakia is preparing apace its operational programmes and the cooperation agreement with the EU, she said. Increasing the efficiency of the use of EU funds by curbing the red tape surrounding the resources is one of Slovakia’s priorities in the process, she said. Funds from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), set up to offset the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, will be used to bolster vulnerable sectors, especially SMEs, she said.
Polish regional development minister Grzegorz Puda praised Hungary for its “exemplary use of the cohesion funds which has yielded spectacular results in the past few years.” The cooperation of the Visegrád countries is very useful for all parties, he said.
Read alsoEU court ruling against PM Orbán’s “toxic populist brand”?
PM Orbán welcomed MOL’s deal with Polish PKN Orlen
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks on central and eastern Europe’s energy sovereignty and efforts to consolidate the north-south energy corridor with Daniel Obajtek, management board president of the Polish PKN Orlen company, and Zsolt Hernádi, chairman-CEO of the Hungarian MOL Group, in Budapest on Wednesday, the prime minister’s press chief said.
The talks touched on the two companies’ recent contract, under which MOL will purchase 417 petrol stations in Poland, and PKN Orlen 185 stations in Hungary and Slovakia.
The deal will make MOL the third biggest player in Poland’s fuel retail trade and PKN Orlen the fourth biggest player on the Hungarian market, Bertalan Havasi said.
The Hungarian government welcomes MOL’s acquisition in Poland and that Polish investors have appeared in Hungary. The contract will boost the two countries’ traditionally good relations, V4 cooperation and economic development in central and eastern Europe, Havasi said, adding that Polish and Hungarian buyers would be the ultimate beneficiaries of the two companies’ fair competition.
Read alsoIs there a gasoline crisis coming in Hungary?
Hungary to receive EU money only if it abolishes its child protection law?
In a ruling on Wednesday, the Court of Justice of the European Union said the regulation accepted by the European Parliament and Council on making EU funding conditional on adhering to principles of the rule of law was built on a sound legal footing, rejecting actions brought against the regulation by Hungary and Poland.
The decree is “compatible with the procedure laid down in Article 7 TEU and respects in particular the limits of the powers conferred on the European Union and the principle of legal certainty,” according to the decision based on an expedited procedure.
Poland and Hungary turned to the CJEU last March, saying the “conditionality clause” lacked sufficient legal basis, overstepped the limits of the EU’s competency, aimed at circumventing the Article 7 procedure and was in violation of the principle of legal certainty.
Justice Minister Judit Varga called today’s decision “politically motivated”, while Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party reacted by saying Hungary was being “stigmatised” over its child protection law.
In its reasoning, the CJEU noted that the procedure laid down in the resolution can be launched only when the breaches in question “affect or seriously risk affecting the sound financial management of the Union budget or the protection of the financial interests of the Union”.
The regulation aims to protect the EU’s budget from harm incurred by breaches to the principle, and not at the protection of the principle itself, the CJEU said.
“Compliance by the Member States with the common values on which the European Union … such as the rule of law and solidarity, justifies the mutual trust between those States. Since that compliance is a condition for the enjoyment of all the rights deriving from the application of the Treaties to a Member State, the European Union must be able to defend those values,” according to the ruling.
Varga said in a Facebook post today that the decision “proves that Brussels is abusing its power … it is another way of putting pressure on Hungary for the amendments to its child protection law accepted last summer”, which the EU has called discriminative against the LGBTQ community.
Referring to a referendum on the child protection law on April 3, Varga said
“Brussels cannot accept that Hungarians can have their say at a referendum. The bureaucratic elite refuses to accept Hungarians’ free decision and opinion,”
she said.
Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party reacted by saying Hungary was being “stigmatised” over its child protection law. It slammed the ruling as “the latest stage of a months-long campaign of political revenge” which had been “prepared in advance”.
“Brussels does not want to accept Hungary’s refusal to give in to pressure, that it passed a law to stop the LGBTQ propaganda targeting children and even called a referendum on the issue,” the party said in a statement. “That is why Hungary was sued, why this whole rule-of-law jihad was launched and that is why they want to stigmatise, comdemn and punish our country.”
Hungary became the centre of petrol tourism, price cap to stay?
Due to the more favourable fuel prices created because of the price cap, more and more people from Slovakia are refuelling in Hungary, writes Új Szó, a Hungarian-language daily newspaper in Slovakia. According to the article, fuel prices in Slovakia have risen dramatically recently.
Prices much cheaper in Hungary than in Slovakia
The average price of a litre of Diesel has been around €1.43 in recent days, compared to €1.53 for 95 petrol. However, this is only the average, so the price of 95 petrol at the stations of larger petrol station networks, for example, is 1.55 euros. In Hungary, on the other hand, the price cap for 95 petrol was set at HUF 480 per litre, which roughly corresponds to 1.36 euros, says 444.hu. Thus, refuelling in Hungary can save up to 15-20 euros.
The price cap will stay until February 15, still unknown what comes after
With parliamentary elections taking place in Hungary in April this year, many say the government is likely to extend the petrol price cap, risking too much if it did not do so because prices would increase in Hungary right away. With the end of the price cap, the price of petrol in Hungary could reach 520, even around 530 forints (EUR 1.5).
For now, it is worth taking petrol to Slovakia
However, according to Új Szó, many are not satisfied by simply filling up their car’s tank. In recent days, more and more people have come to Hungary with a trailer fitted after their car, procuring several barrels of fuel at a time.
Spokeswoman Martina Rybanská warned that up to 10 litres of fuel could be imported into Slovakia duty-free from another EU country.
Anyone wishing to enter a larger quantity must file a tax return
According to her, it is not worth cheating because, if the person cannot prove with at least one receipt where they got the fuel outside the fuel tank from, they can expect a penalty of between 100 euros and 100 thousand euros, depending on the amount of fuel taken, of course. And those who fail to file a tax return will be fined between €30 and €16,000 by the customs office.
Read also: Fuel prices to skyrocket if the government abolishes price cap in February
Euro or forint? Here is what Hungarians think
A majority of Hungarians do not think that Hungary is ready to introduce the common currency of the European Union. Meanwhile, more than 2/3rds of those asked believe that introducing the euro would be beneficial. Here are the findings of the latest relevant survey of the Republikon Institute.
Introducing the euro: Hungarians think it is realistic
According to index.hu, the Institute examined what citizens think about introducing the euro in EU states outside of the eurozone: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden. Based on the institute’s findings, the majority of people do not think their countries are ready to introduce the euro. In Hungary, this rate is lower than in the other Visegrád Four countries not using the euro, like the Czech Republic and Poland.
In this respect, Hungarians and the citizens of
the analysed countries view their possibilities objectively.
In the 2020 convergence report of the European Central Bank, they say that Hungary does not meet the Maastricht criteria. The country’s 1.8 pc inflation rate and 60 pc budget deficit are very high.
Hungarians do not trust the forint?
The relative majority in Hungary and the V4 countries think they will be part of the eurozone in ten years. However, 25-33 pc of them believe that they will never use the EU’s common currency.
Interestingly, Hungarians think that the country will introduce the euro only later. However, their attitude is the second most positive towards the currency among the EU states not part of the eurozone.
An expected price increase is a common argument against introducing the euro. However, the Republikon Institute found that Hungarians are the least worried about a possible price increase. The majority of them think that using the euro would stabilise prices. The Institute wrote that the opinion might correlate with
Hungarians’ distrust in their national currency.
As we reported before, the forint became weaker and weaker against the euro in the last few months. That was beneficial for Hungarians working abroad but disadvantageous for everybody else. The opposition claims that the government intentionally weakens the national currency to help the export. The forint strengthened in the last few weeks, but the exchange rate is unstable.
Read alsoBudapest among the TOP 10 most expensive cities in Eastern Europe
Visegrad Group energy ministers discuss hydrogen in Budapest
Energy ministers of the Visegrad Group — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — discussed the planning and establishment of a European hydrogen ecosystem at a meeting in Budapest on Tuesday.
Government officials in charge of energy from Germany and Austria also attended the meeting virtually.
Innovation and Technology Minister László Palkovics said cooperation at the national and the European level is “very important” to advance investment projects in innovative areas and the development of new technologies. Establishing forums that promote cooperation with market players and address regulatory issues should be a focus of governments’ joint efforts, he added.
Palkovics noted that
all six of the countries represented at the meeting already have or are drafting their own hydrogen strategies.
Slovak Minister of Economy Richard Sulik said
his country will soon put hydrogen-powered buses into operation in a city with a population of 30,000.
Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Sikela pointed out geopolitical risks, noting that none of the V4 can be self-sufficient in hydrogen production. Subsidies policy and energy market regulation are key, he added.
Polish Minister of Climate and Environment Anna Moskwa also said geopolitical factors must be weighed.
After the meeting, the sides signed a joint declaration on strengthening energy transformation, energy security and the European electricity transmission system as well as the establishment of a connected European hydrogen ecosystem.
Read alsoMinister: Hungary’s gas supply from Russia is secure until 2036
Jobbik MEP Gyöngyösi: This is how the illiberal party family failed to be formed again
Jobbik deputy leader and MEP Márton Gyöngyösi said in a press release, travelling to Spain’s capital this time, Europe’s far-right, nationalist and illiberal forces gathered for their umpteenth attempt to form – something. Although the number of participants may suggest that a new party family was supposed to be born, the Madrid summit revealed something entirely different: it showed how these leaders, who keep going on and on about order and national confidence in their own homelands, become so clumsy when it comes to forming an actual organization.
Press release
Gyöngyösi said, the difficulty of trying to coordinate the far-right section of Europe’s political spectrum is clearly demonstrated by the confusion around the declaration adopted by the Madrid meeting: according to the first news, the parties even seemed to have agreed on condemning Moscow’s aggressive actions. ‘Did Le Pen and Orbán really sign something like this?’ you could hear the surprised reactions, but it soon turned out nothing like that happened, of course. Although the Madrid summit condemned Brussels, it did not condemn Moscow. ‘Morawiecki didn’t even condemn Moscow?’ asked many others who primarily viewed the grand far-right project from the aspect of Polish politics. Indeed, the diverse responses clearly show how little these forces have in common other than a few eloquent political slogans or their aversion to democracy and the rule of law.
There is no real surprise here: how could Russia-funded Le Pen cooperate in the international arena with such figures as Orbán, who shakes the hands of post-Soviet dictators, Morawiecki, who has a visceral antipathy towards Russians or the hardly pro-Russia Conservative People’s Party of Estonia?
How could Georgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini, who have been engaged in a fierce struggle for positions in Italy, suddenly come to an agreement for the sake of international affairs? How could Spain’s VOX, which strongly opposes regional national autonomy, come to terms with the separatist Vlaams Belang? (Fun fact: the event’s organizers raised the Belgian flag to honour the Flemish nationalists, something they feel no loyalty for at all.) And which of the participants would be ready to acknowledge their friendship with Germany’s AfD, thus openly declaring war on Berlin?
Perhaps the Romanians would offer the easiest challenge for this confounded company: for example, the Romanian participant, who currently strengthens the lines of the National Peasants’ Party, was able to successfully cooperate with the post-Communist Romanian social democrats when it came to his own parliamentary seat.
He’s likely to manage with others, too. On the other hand, what do you make of George Simion, a former football ultra and now Chauvinist and anti-Hungarian AUR party leader, who happily posted his attendance of the event and made a selfie with MEP Jorge Buxadé there? Surprisingly enough, the organizers claimed Simion was never invited, and even if he was, he was never allowed to enter, and even if he may have been allowed to enter, he was promptly thrown out. Either way, he still had the opportunity and the time to post a selfie and a tweet.
We expected better security from the “guardians of European culture”…
- read also – French RTL: Marine Le Pen received millions of EUR from a Hungarian bank
Read alsoPM Orbán met with Marine Le Pen to discuss EU conservative cooperation
How popular is Putin in Central and Eastern Europe?
Fully 43 percent of Hungarians asked in a Nézőpont survey expressed a positive view of Russian President Vladimir Putin, while 36 percent of respondents said they had a negative opinion.
The pro-government Nézőpont gauged Putin’s appreciation in 12 central European countries in November and December last year, and concluded from the results that the Russian president is a divisive politician.
According to the pollster,
Hungarians have a “pragmatic” view of the Russian president.
Putin is most popular with Serbs (77pc), while respondents in Poland (10pc) indicated the most negative views about him.
The poll found that Putin was also popular in Bulgaria (60pc), North Macedonia (55pc) and Montenegro (57pc).
The Russian president was less popular with Czechs (25pc), and Romanians (31pc).
Slovenia (34pc), Croatia (37pc) and Austria (21pc) were in the same “pragmatic” category as Hungary.
Orbán in Moscow:
V4: “It is crucial to create a European-level migration and refugee system”
The defence and law enforcement committees of the parliaments of the Visegrád Group have expressed support for an undivided NATO and European Union, Lajos Kósa, the head of the Hungarian committee, said after a meeting of his V4 counterparts in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, on Friday.
The closed-door meeting, also attended by Slovenia, as an observer, focused on strategic and long-term cooperation issues as well as topical subjects such as the situation in Ukraine, Kósa told a press conference.
The participants issued a joint statement concerning the draft migration and refugee pact of the EU, as well as on defence cooperation between the Visegrád countries.
In their statements, the committee heads warned that a further increase in tension around Ukraine could trigger a wave of mass migration and create a situation similar to the Belarusian migration crisis and called for a complex approach.
It is crucial to create a European-level migration and refugee system that could “cope with the challenges, the migration pressure on the external borders of the EU, as well as with the hybrid attacks that use migration as a tool”, the statement said.
In their statement, the signatories also called on the EU to “avoid any measures triggering migration”. Participants in the meeting also expressed support for the Hungarian V4 presidency’s efforts to further cooperation “in a V4+” format in view of shared security threats and challenges, Kósa said.
Read also Next Hungarian president prepares for ideological cold war
Fidesz MEP: we demonstrated our strength against left-wing green ideology
A total of 78 MEPs from fourteen countries have signed a Polish initiative calling on the European Commission to take into consideration regional differences and stop increasing energy poverty when introducing climate policy regulations, ruling Fidesz MEP András Gyürk said on Tuesday.
Gyürk said in a statement that the initiative published as an open letter was an “important move against the left wing’s increasing attempts of exerting pressure”.
“We have demonstrated our strength against left-wing green ideology,”
he added.
The signatories of the initiative welcomed the EC plan to give green classification to investments in nuclear energy and natural gas, Gyürk said. At the same time they said Brussels was not sufficiently taking into consideration regional differences and failed to act against energy poverty. In order to achieve change, more resources must be made available for projects involving nuclear energy and natural gas because these are required to keep public utility costs low and fulfil climate goals, he said.
As a first step, the signatories called on Brussels to improve its proposal concerning the taxonomy regulations, Gyürk said. The Hungarian signatories included Gyürk and two other Fidesz MEPs: Enikő Győri and Edina Tóth.
Featured image: illustration
Read alsoHungary breached EU merger rules
Breaking – Hungarian MOL acquires 417 petrol stations in Poland!
Hungarian oil and gas company MOL on Wednesday said it signed agreements with PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos on the acquisition of 417 petrol stations in Poland for 610 million US dollars.
MOL also agreed to sell 185 of its own petrol stations to PKN Orlen for a total consideration of USD 259 million. The divested service stations include 144 in Hungary and 41 in Slovakia.
Both of the transactions are expected to be concluded within twelve months,
MOL said.
MOL said the acquisition of the Polish petrol stations is “an excellent fit” for the growth strategy of its consumer services business. The purchase “would provide a basis for future growth” in Poland, in which MOL has had a limited presence, it added.
MOL had been tipped to acquire the petrol stations which Lotos had to part with as a condition for approval by the European Commission of its acquisition by PKN Orlen.
Read alsoCheck out how Budapest’s tallest building is developing! – PHOTO GALLERY
Hungarian company expanding in Poland: shopping malls, office building acquired – PHOTOS
Futureal Investment Partners has announced three real estate investments totalling nearly 70,000 sq m. Through the transactions, two shopping malls in Poland and an office building have been added to the portfolio of the Futureal Group’s newly established real estate investment and asset management business.
All three proprierties have excellent potential
Futureal Investment Partners has taken the first steps to become a major international investment and asset management company. The business focusing on value-add and opportunistic investments in Europe, has invested in three valuable projects in Poland within a short period of time with an aim of repositioning.
Due to the transactions, the company acquired the 30,345 sq m Galeria Bemowo shopping centre in Warsaw and the 25,570 sq m Manhattan shopping centre in Gdańsk.
Both complexes have an excellent location, spacious parking area and 120 shops that has attracted major tenants such as Carrefour.
The Wratislavia Tower located in Wrocław, one of the largest Polish cities, is also part of the acquisitions.
Only 300 meters from the city’s main square, the 11-storey glass-walled building offers 12,000 sq m of office and service space including a cinema, a fitness centre and 140 underground parking spaces.
“All three of our recently announced projects fit perfectly into our investment strategy to deliver high returns. We invest in properties with excellent potentials to reposition them with high expertise that will further increase their value in the market,” emphasized Karol Pilniewicz, Chief Investment Officer at Futureal Investment Partners.
“We have launched Futureal Investment Partners with the view of becoming the partner of choice for institutional investors seeking value-add and opportunistic real estate exposure.
Futureal Investment Partners operates as an independent platform, however it leverages the collective experience and network of our 500+ people real estate teams and two decades of deal-making and development history,” added Gábor Futó, founder and main shareholder of Futureal Group.
Futureal Investment Partners
Futureal Investment Partners is a real estate investment and asset management business that
focuses on value-add and opportunistic investments across Europe.
Founded in 2021, it is part of Futureal Group, one of the leading European real estate developer groups. During the last two decades Futureal Group has developed more than 180 real estate projects with a total value of €5 billion and an area of more than 3 million sq m.
Read alsoThese are the greatest real estate development projects in Budapest in 2022! – PHOTOS
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Crazy price increase in Budapest real estate market – New results!
The price per square metre of newly-built apartments in Budapest has doubled over the last decade. Therefore, it is not surprising that since 2013 the second-highest growth of property prices have been registered in the Hungarian capital. The rise in the Budapest real estate market prices even precedes trends in Warsaw, Bratislava and Zagreb. We will now examine the extent of this increase and present you the most expensive districts in Budapest!
As we previously reported, property prices in Budapest has been skyrocketing in the last few years. This has been underpinned by a newly published survey of KPMG, according to which, Budapest has registered the second-highest price increase of newly built apartments since 2013. Based on the results, prices in the Hungarian capital have surpassed those in Warsaw, Bratislava and Zagreb, but are still far behind those in Vienna, Berlin and Prague. In terms of the intensity of increase, only the Czech capital has preceded Budapest.
Accordingly, in the period 2013-2021,
Budapest and Prague have seen the largest increase in house prices within the region, with prices per square metre doubling in both capitals.
Since 2019, the tendency of rising property prices has slightly stopped. This is partly due to the pandemic as well as the temporary reinstatement of VAT on new housing (from 5 to 27%). As the Hungarian news portal 24.hu reports, market participants should expect another rebound in 2021 as a whole, driven by the return of tax credits and the post-recession economic recovery. Nevertheless, the current average price per square metre of apartments in Budapest is still behind Vienna, Berlin and Prague. While this is a great benefit for homeowners, it can be a major difficulty for those looking for their first home.
Read also: Here is where you can buy cheap properties near Budapest
The newly published survey also examined how property prices had changed in relation to net income. Accordingly, it has been revealed that the situation of those who would like to purchase their first home is difficult as property prices are also increasing relative to net income. In other words,
housing has also become more expensive relative to salaries.
This ratio for Hungary is 1.7, which means numerically that while salaries have increased by 32% over the period, prices per square metre have risen by 124%. Accordingly, the gap between income and house prices has widened remarkably, and only Germany recorded a larger change over the last decade. Consequently, the Budapest real estate market certainly does not favour young people who want to start a family and purchase their first home.
Read also: Things to consider when buying real estate in Budapest
Nevertheless, the majority of Hungarians are less concerned than in many other countries. This can be accredited to the fact that 91.3% of the population in Hungary are homeowners which is an exceptionally high proportion in Europe.
As the Hungarian news portal Portfolio reports, the TOP 5 most expensive new apartments are located in Budapest’s 6th district at the Kodály Körönd. The luxury apartments of 220-260 m2 with balconies of 15-20 m2 are offered for EUR 2.1 – 2.5 million. The price per square metre is EUR 9,500. Similarly high prices can be observed in the Hárshegy34 residential complex in Budapest’s 2nd district. Here, a 250 m2 apartment is available for EUR 2.1 million. After the TOP 5, there is a gap in the price level. The next apartments on the list are offered for EUR 1.6 – 1.4 million, with prices per square metre in this range between EUR 7,600 – 10,600. These properties are mainly located in the 6th, 2nd, 13th and 9th districts of Budapest.
Government’s communication shows no result, Hungary’s economy is plummeting
Though the government says Hungary’s economy increases unprecedentedly, numbers do not support PM Orbán’s communication. Based on the data of the World Bank, Hungary fell behind in the last 25 years in the region.
According to 24.hu, the Orbán administration tried to sell Hungary as one of the most successful European countries economically. Meanwhile, inflation is at a 14-year peak, the forint is weakening, and the state budget struggles with a historic high deficit.
Based on the World Bank’s data, Hungary fell behind two places in the Central-Eastern-European region between 1995 and 2020.
The institution compared the economic development of 17 countries in CEE, taking GDP per capita.
The starting date is 1995 because that is from when the World Bank has data from all countries in the CEE region.
In 1995, Hungary was in fifth place if we take the GDP per capita. Slovenia was first in the CEE region, while the Czech Republic came second. However, the average Slovenian produced twice as much GDP as the average Czech (10,730 dollars vs 5,824 dollars). The third was Croatia, fourth Slovakia and fifth Hungary (4,495 USD per person). Interestingly, the Polish GDP per capita was only 82 pc of the Hungarian. However, thanks to liberal reforms, Warsaw was one of the fastest-growing economies of the CEE region in the last 25 years.
Poland developed by 150 pc between 1989 and 2019. Meanwhile, this rate was only 50 pc in Hungary’s case.
Estonia was well behind Hungary in 1995. But by 2020, Tallinn became the second most developed country in the region. An average citizen of the Baltic state made more than 23 thousand dollars in 2020. Experts say that Estonia profited a lot from their liberal education and economic reforms, and the digitalisation of the state. Meanwhile, the Hungarian GDP per capita grew only to 15,900 USD, which is only 69 pc of the Estonian number.
However, not only the Polish and the Estonians preceded Hungary. Latvia and Lithuania did so, too.
24.hu gave a detailed analysis of the milestones of the Hungarian economic development in the last 25 years. In 1995, the parliament accepted the Bokros-package, named after the Socialist Gyula Horn’s liberal economy minister. The package’s social effect was catastrophic, but it put the Hungarian economy on a growth course. 24.hu argues that Hungary did the same as Poland and Estonia, but the reforms came too late.
Hungary’s position did not change in the second half of the 1990s and at the beginning of the 2000s. However, in 2002, Hungary emerged in third place. That meant Budapest preceded even Croatia and Slovakia. 24.hu says that the increasing expenditures of
the first Orbán and Medgyessy-governments broke the budget balance.
Therefore, the Gyurcsány-cabinet (2004-2009) encouraged foreign currency loans to substitute state-supported real estate loans introduced by Viktor Orbán before. Even the central bank of Hungary did not say that the process was risky. However, when the exchange rate of forint collapsed, people having a foreign currency loan found themselves in a deadly trap. By 2007, the amount of this loan reached 272 bn HUF.
The result was that 61 thousand families struggled with paying back their loans. Their burden was so high, and those affected so many that they needed state help. Furthermore, the Hungarian state debt increased from 53 pc of the GDP (2002) to 80 pc (2010). After Gyurcsány’s Őszöd speech resulted in clashes in 2006 fall between the protesters and the police, Hungary started to fall back. By 2007, Hungary was seventh.
In 2009, the list was the following: Slovenia, Czechia, Slovakia, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
Moreover, in 2012, Hungary became 9th on the list in the region. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Croatia all preceded the country. That is when the cut in the utility fees came and saved the Orbán administration.
By 2015, Hungary went back to seventh place in the region. That has not changed since then.
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Turkey-Visegrad Group foreign ministers meeting held in Budapest
The European Union should transfer without delay all the support promised to Turkey for looking after migrants staying there because Ankara has a highlighted role in protecting the continent, the foreign ministry said citing Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó as saying on Tuesday.
Szijjártó told a joint press conference after a Turkey-Visegrad Group foreign ministers meeting that Europe was under unprecedented attack from three directions which is expected to strengthen in the future.
One of the reasons he cited was the situation in Afghanistan.
He said that following the failure of international intervention there, food supplies were in danger for some 23 million people in the country and the number of internal refugees had reached four million.
In order to present further migratory waves, the publication of statements and plans that encourage migration should be prevented and close partnership should be developed with countries on the route of migrants, he said. In terms of the latter effort, Turkey plays a key role in the protection of Europe, he added.
“The protection of Hungary’s southern borders starts in Turkey and with Turkey,” he said.
As a result, Szijjártó called on the EU to transfer the entire sum of 6 billion euros which had been promised to Ankara, especially considering that the Turkish government has already spent 40 billion dollars on looking after migrants staying in the country, the ministry said. Additionally, he said the community should support Turkey’s border protection efforts in order to prevent a further increase in migratory pressure.
Szijjártó said
the Hungarian government was strongly against the EU’s plan to sign the Post-Cotonou agreement with 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific States which he described as “the little brother of the UN Global Compact for Migration”.
Instead of finding ways for Africans to come to Europe, the EU should agree with Africa on how Africans can be convinced to stay at their place of birth, he said.
Mevlut Cavusoglu
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country was looking after the largest number of refugees in the world since 2014. As a result, he said settling the Afghan situation was especially important and added that the international community should gradually establish relations with the new Talib leaders.
Jan Lipavsky
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said the V4 group was an important format for cooperation and added that Ankara played a key role in the fight against illegal migration.
Zbigniew Rau
Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau called for speeding up EU enlargement in the Western Balkans and praised opportunities for economic cooperation between the V4 and Turkey.
Ingrid Brockova
Slovak foreign affairs state secretary Ingrid Brockova said it must be prevented that Afghanistan should again become a starting pont of terror attacks and migratory waves. She said increasing pressure in the Western Balkans was cause for concern.
