Poland

Speed railway system to link Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary

bullet-train high speed railway
The transport ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia signed a cooperation agreement on developing the railway network of the region on Friday in Krakow, in southern Poland.
 
Deputy state secretary Péter Tóth, who represented Hungary at the talks, told a joint press conference that Hungary will see regional infrastructure development as a priority when it takes over the Visegrád Group’s rotating presidency in July.

 The Visergád Group will also coordinate during talks with the European Union on the
 
development of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T),
he said.

The Hungarian stretch of the Via Carpathia, a north-south regional road, will be finished this year, Tóth said.

Andrzej Adamczyk, the Polish minister of infrastructure, said it was in the group’s interest that the region’s important transport corridors be included in TEN-T. Besides Via Carpathia, Adamczyk said the speed railway linking the four countries, the Danube-Odera-Elbe canal and the Polish central airport planned between Warsaw and Lodz should also receive funding.
 

Visegrád Group to set up a joint digital knowledge centre

visegrad group prime minister
Representatives of Visegrád Group countries have agreed to set up a joint digital knowledge centre to promote digital transformation in east central Europe and the development of digital economies in member countries, the IVSZ association for digital economy said on Friday.
 
The New V4lley Regional Digital Knowledge Centre is expected to further strengthen professional cooperation between all organisations participating in the development of the infocommunications sector in central Europe, the statement said.
Due to the unification of artificially fragmented markets, companies in the region can break through their boundaries,
IVSZ leader Balázs Vinnai said. The potentials offered by digitalisation could give a boost to the V4 region to become a European Silicon Valley, he added.
 

How good is the Hungarian metro system? – A regional comparison

metro M2

The underground system of the Hungarian capital has a relatively long history, as the Millenium Underground was built in 1896 and was the first underground line in the European mainland. But how do the current Hungarian underground system and general public transportation system fare against the cities of the surrounding Central and Eastern European countries?

The underground system of the Hungarian capital is currently not in a bad place; metro line four (M4) is still relatively new and modern, line two (M2) has been renewed, and the modernisation of metro line three (M3) is currently underway. The Millenium Underground, although not in a particularly bad shape, is ready for a renovation, and according to some plans, it will also be elongated, says Növekedés.

There have also been talks of a fifth metro line (M5) and a major rework of the commuter railway lines in Budapest, with some of them being relocated underground and connected to the others. These and many other developments are part of the large-scale city development project: Budapestvasut2040. If the new underground line is built, the Hungarian capital might get a much better ranking than it currently has and would immediately soar to the top. Now let us see how it currently fares.

Cities without any underground

Quite many surrounding capitals do not even have an underground system, such as Slovenia and Croatia, but neither Ljubljana nor Zagreb is large enough to have one necessarily, Növekedés reported. In the Slovak capital, Pozsony, there were attempts to create two underground lines, and the construction of one of them even began, but they were never finished. While there are currently no undergrounds in Serbia either, the construction of a system in Belgrade has been the focus of political programmes in recent times.

Budapest’s new metro line 5 could cost over €1 billion!

Renovated Hungarian metro cars are the real Russian roulette

Cities with underground

Warsaw

In the region, the last place goes to Warsaw, as it has only two underground lines to a city that is very similar in population to Budapest. The system is relatively new as the first underground was built in 1995, and the two lines are 32.4 kilometres in total lengths. It is also the only city in Poland with an underground.

Warsaw Metro Lines
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Jurij
Budapest

Hungary is unfortunately the second from the back. Although Budapest currently has four metro lines as part of its underground railway system, which would place it before the next contestant, but unfortunately, the total length of those lines is only 39 kilometres. If metro line five (M5) will be built, however, that would place the Hungarian capital much further up the list as Növekedés reported.

Budapest Metro Lines
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Vampeare
Prague

The third place goes to the Czech Republic’s capital, Prague. Although interestingly, it only has three metro lines, and they are labelled by letters rather than numbers – which is unique in the region – their total length is over 65 kilometres. That is quite a lot longer than the lines in the Hungarian capital. Additionally, both the metro cars and the lines themselves are pretty modern and in a good shape.

Prague Metro Lines
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Zirland
Bucharest

The second place goes to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It has five metro lines, and the first underground railway car launched back in 1979. With an average of 1.5 kilometres of distance between stations – a total of 63 – and a total length of 77 kilometres, Bucharest passes Prague with quite a bit. According to Növekedés, in respect of the modernness and cleanliness of the system, it might be a bit beyond Hungary currently. It has many stations with old designs, and many of the cars are in bad shape or have been vandalised.

Bucharest Metro Lines
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Mliu92
Vienna

It might not surprise you that the winner in the region is Vienna, the capital of Austria. The system, called U-Bahn in German, is one of the most modern and the cars are in good shape. The first underground was operating in 1976, but the city had a predecessor to that with underground trams, which have been running earlier in the 20th century. Additionally, to that, Vienna also has an S-Bahn system, which is similar to the commuter railway lines of Budapest but far more superior.

Vienna Metro Lines
Source: Wikimedia Commons / HerrMay
Column Diagram Metro
Data from Novekedes.hu

But what about the prices?

According to Növekedés, the ticket prices of BKK (Centre for Budapest Transport) are on average compared to the region’s prices. You can see them in the following chart:

Ticket Prices Metro
Data from Novekedes.hu
Read alsoBudapest’s Millenium Underground celebrating its 125th anniversary! – PHOTOS

Commemoration for the martyr János Esterházy held in the Czech Republic

János Esterházy

Ethnic Hungarians and Poles held a commemoration in Mirov, in the Czech Republic, to pay tribute to János Esterházy, a leader of Slovakia Hungarians between the two world wars, on Saturday.

The commemoration marking the martyred count’s 120th birth anniversary, was organised by ethnic Hungarian association CSMMSZ and the local authority.

The event was attended by Miklós Boros, Hungary’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Mirov Mayor Lubomir Pejchal, and representatives of ethnic Hungarian organisations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Count Esterházy (1901-1957), the sole Hungarian deputy in the Slovak Parliament before 1945, was a firm advocate of the ethnic Hungarian community, raising his voice against any violation of minority rights and against discrimination.

Commission preparing beatification of János Esterházy sworn in

Czechoslovak authorities arrested him in 1945 under the charge of war crimes, and turned him over to the Soviet military authorities. In 1947 he was sentenced to 10 years of forced labour in Moscow and handed a death sentence in absentia in Bratislava on trumped-up charges.

Two years later, the Soviet Union extradited the ailing Esterházy to Czechoslovakia, where the president commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment. The count died in a prison in Mirov in March 1957. His ashes were identified in 2007 in Prague’s Motol cemetery.

Read also4 reasons to visit Esterházy Palace in Fertőd − PHOTOS

House Speaker: Hungary’s aim is to boost W Balkan states’ EU integration

Hungary parliament Balkans

Giving a boost to the Western Balkan countries’ integration into the European Union will be a priority for the Hungarian presidency of the Visegrad Group (V4), to start in July, Speaker of Parliament László Kövér said on Friday.

The Hungarian presidency will host meetings of V4 parliamentary speakers in July, September and next March. In September, it will be combined with a meeting of Western Balkan House speakers, Kövér told a meeting of V4 speakers of parliament in Wroclaw.

The Hungarian presidency, he said, would coordinate the work done by lawmakers in the Visegrád countries in preparation for European conferences, he said.

The V4 countries — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — will have a better chance of asserting their interests if they coordinate their positions on the future of Europe and disclose them as a group, Kövér said.

The Hungarian presidency will lay stress on protecting the cultural heritage and the identity of central Europe,

he said.

Further, the four countries are committed to developing regional defence cooperation, Kövér said.

The participants have approved a nine-point declaration on a variety of issues, including the situation in Belarus, the EU integration of Western Balkan countries and the Eastern Partnership policy.

This is what Polish tourists visit in Hungary

Puszta Hungary Hortobágy Tourism

Polish tourists mostly go to Lake Balaton and Eastern Hungary instead of Budapest. They spend an average of three days – based on a new statement of the Hungarian Tourism Agency.

According to Magyar Hírlap, in 2020, Poland was in third place from where most of the tourists came the previous year. Most Polish tourists do not prefer to stay in Budapest hotels,

80 pc of their guest nights realized in other Hungarian villages and cities.

Interestingly, 40 pc of them chose to stay at private accommodation, but campings are also very popular among them (17 pc) while 15 pc of them chose 3-star hotels to spend their holiday. Polish tourists spent 3 billion HUF (EUR 8.6 mn) in Hungary on accommodation. The 35-44 age group spends the most, almost one bn HUF.

The most popular destinations among them were the neighbourhood of Lake Balaton (29 pc), Debrecen (24 pc) and the region of Mátra and Bükk (19 pc).

The cities Polish tourists visited most were Budapest, Hajdúszoboszló and Siófok.

The Hungarian Tourism Agency regularly writes about the biggest sending countries in May and June. Last time they wrote about the Russians saying that, among them, the most popular destinations were the thermal baths of Budapest. They added that Russia is the 10th biggest sending countries in the Hungarian tourism sector.

 

Jobbik MEP Gyöngyösi: Can corrupted Hungary escape EU judgement?

Laura Codruţa Kövesi Hungary European Public Prosecutor's Office

Remarks from Jobbik MEP Márton Gyöngyösi:

We witnessed a long-awaited event on 1st June: the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) finally began its operation to protect EU monies. One may say it was high time, but we wouldn’t be living in the European Union if there wasn’t yet another twist in the story: Member States were not required to join, and the Orbán government, which had built up a dictatorial regime through tapping into EU funds, refused to participate.

They could hardly have found a more suitable person than Romania’s former chief of anti-corruption prosecution office Laura Codruţa Kövesi to head the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), as she has already proved her capabilities beyond doubt. It must have taken a significant amount of courage for her to combat Romania’s most influential politicians in a sphere that is often euphemistically called “Byzantine” on account of the critically dangerous chains of corruption developing there. Not only did Kövesi combat the people who had caused serious damage to the Romanian state, but she put them behind bars, too, one after the other.

We might as well go as far as to say that if she could stand her ground so courageously in such an environment, the management of the EPPO will almost be like a walk in the park for her.

As a matter of fact, Luxembourg is certainly different from Bucharest, but the challenge is still big. In cooperation with the 22 participating countries, EPPO will have to investigate such crimes in member state territories as money laundering, corruption or tax fraud, provided that the cases affect EU funds. The total value of the cases is very high: according to the known data, such frauds were committed up to the amount of €460 million in 2019 alone, and the sum is expected to rise even higher as the EU’s recovery funds are allocated.

It’s a beautiful challenge but the devil, as usual in the European Union, lies in the details: EU member states were not required to join the EPPO, and five of them did indeed decide to stay out of it. Denmark and Ireland have an opt-out from the area of freedom, security and justice, while Sweden wants to wait until next year to join in the work of the prosecution office. We must note however, that none of these three countries are famous for corruption, and they are not the main net recipients of EU funds, either. It’s more interesting to look at the cases of Poland and Hungary: neither of these countries is planning to join the EPPO at all, but they receive huge sums from the EU.

As far as Poland is concerned, the reason for the rejection is likely political: although the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been widely criticized for its increasingly authoritarian methods over the years, its opposition with the EU bodies is mainly ideological. All-devouring corruption has not been reported in Poland.

In contrast, Hungary’s Orbán regime has been using increasingly blatant dictatorial measures to methodically eliminate its opposition and dismantle independent institutions. Despite the façade of battling Brussels over ideological issues, the truth is that Orbán has built up a fundamentally corrupt regime that he maintains by tapping into the very EU funds he is supposed to invest into the country’s development.

In today’s Hungary, corruption is not a system error, it’s the system itself.

Not only do Orbán’s favourite oligarchs and closest allies keep lining their already bulging pockets with the EU funds, but EU monies have become a sort of currency to pay off the provincial oligarchs who deliver the votes for Fidesz by intimidating and blackmailing the local people – in return, they are allowed to use their region’s development funds for their own purposes. No wonder Orbán doesn’t even consider joining the EPPO.

Of course, the official explanation is that Hungary’s prosecution service is completely sufficient to prevent fraudulent practices. However, if you have just a minimal insight into Hungary, you are well aware that Chief Prosecutor Péter Polt is a former Fidesz member and MP candidate, who is Orbán’s political appointee and therefore doesn’t have the slightest inclination to look into the affairs of his fellow party members. (This system is so much more ingenious than Poland’s model of replacing judges, because the cases dropped in the prosecution phase will never be seen by a judge, so it no longer matters who the judge is – which clearly shows how cunning Fidesz is.)

This way however, regardless how happy we are about Laura Codruţa Kövesi’s appointment and the EPPO in general, we rightfully feel dissatisfied since the biggest thief is allowed to escape justice.

Knowing the history of European integration, it’s easy to understand why it’s so hard to step up against the blatant corruption in Hungary. The EU was basically created on the grounds of its member states’ honesty and good faith. The founding fathers and the institutionalized EU bodies could hardly have expected any country to become a member for the sole purpose of sabotaging the organization politically and shaking it down financially.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Viktor Orbán has been doing. No matter how hard it is, it’s time for us to think about how to stop the politicians like him before it gets too late.

Belarus and Euroepan Union Flag
Read alsoJobbik MEP Gyöngyösi: What should Europe’s position be about Belarus?

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office to operate without Hungary?

laura-corduta-kovesi-politician-woman

For the time being, five countries are opting out from joining the work of the prosecutor’s office, including Hungary. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office will be entitled to conduct investigations and prosecutions in the territory of the Member States participating in this cooperation.

The launch of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is a historic step in the fight for the rule of law, and you can bet I will be smiling behind my mask,

said in her opening speech Laura Codruta Kövesi, the head of the prosecution, who previously headed the Romanian anti-corruption prosecutor’s office.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an investigative body set up to protect EU funds with the participation of 22 EU Member States, will start its operation on 1 June. This was announced at the organisation’s headquarters in Luxembourg.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office is responsible for investigating crimes such as money laundering, corruption, and cross-border VAT fraud in the territory of the Member States, insofar as they concern EU funds.

One of the main reasons for launching the prosecution is that, in 2019 alone, Member States reported a fraud of EUR 460 million affecting the EU budget. This amount will now be even more, as the €750 billion EU Recovery Fund will soon be mobilised.

Vera Jourova, the European Commissioner for Values ​​and Transparency, said that the EPPO, together with the EU’s anti-fraud office (OLAF), the EU police (Europol), and prosecutorial cooperation (Eurojust), is a very strong force in defending the single currency.

The EPPO will operate as a fully independent office. At least two European Public Prosecutor delegates per Member State will work closely with the Central Office as National Liaison Officers.

According to the cooperating Member States, the independence of the EPPO is key to its success: the EPPO is not part of the EU institutions, so it cannot receive instructions from either them or the national authorities.

Five EU countries are not currently members of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. Denmark and Ireland have a so-called “opt-out” in justice and home affairs, i.e. they are left out of the common rules in these areas. Ireland has the option of an “opt-in”, i.e. a later accession, while Denmark does not. Sweden is not yet a member of the prosecution, but it has indicated that it would be ready to join in 2022.

However, Hungary and Poland appear to be opting out long-term.

Although the Swedes, Danes, and the Irish are not major beneficiaries of the EU budget, i.e. EU funds do not need to be protected in these countries, Hungary and Poland have a significant share of the common coffers. However, Budapest and Warsaw are of the opinion that their own prosecution system is enough to eliminate fraud and corruption cases.

The Hungarian government also argues that, according to the rules, it is conceivable that only foreign prosecutors would act in Hungarian cases, without the knowledge of Hungarian laws and language.

Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kövesi also spoke about this in an interview with Politico. She argued that, although the office’s rules allow delegated prosecutors to help other countries in some cases, it will be virtually impossible for them to act without the knowledge of local procedures and language. The EPPO recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Hungarian Public Prosecutor’s Office to help each other’s work.

It is also a problem that, although Slovenia has delegated a prosecutor to the central body, it has still not designated the two national liaison prosecutors. The tender was declared invalid by the government, as a response to which the Slovenian Minister of Justice resigned, and the Slovenian Attorney General said that the government had only one thing to do: approve the selected prosecutors.

This is not the first time that Prime Minister Janez Jansa has indicated following a different path. He now argues that other countries, as detailed above, do not participate in the work of the EPPO at all. According to many, Jansa, who will head the EU rotating presidency as the Prime Minister of Slovenia, which will hold the EU rotating presidency for the next six months, is testing the European Union while it is voicing serious criticisms of him, for example, for undermining press freedom.

Laura Codruta Kövesi called the Slovenian government’s decision a very bad sign showing a lack of sincere cooperation.

According to her, this puts Slovenia at great risk because it is not possible to defend EU money in Slovenia without Slovenian prosecutors.

“This will influence the activity of EPPO, the efficiency of EPPO,”

she said.

“How we can protect better the European money without having the prosecutors in Slovenia?”

The EPPO already has its first registered case: it comes from Germany while the second one from Italy. The prosecution is expected to handle 3,000 cases a year.

regiojet railway service
Read alsoRegioJet to relaunch its rail routes in Central Europe

Polish ultra-conservatives launch university to mould new elites – Hungarian government supports it

Poland Hungary university

An ultra-conservative Polish think tank on Friday inaugurated a university intended to mould future leaders who espouse the conservative Christian values that the nationalist government champions, and push back against Western liberalism.

The project reflects a wider backlash in central Europe against what many ruling politicians and right-wing commentators view as a tide of discrimination against conservative ideas and research.

Although independent of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, the think tank, Ordo Iuris, has gained prominence in recent years, and seen several of its former members reach senior positions in the Polish government and judiciary.

It offers legal aid to parents who oppose discussion of gay and lesbian rights in schools, and to local authorities that say they oppose “LGBT ideology” in order to preserve Poland’s traditional Roman Catholic culture.

Ordo Iuris officials said their Collegium Intermarium, would mirror the Central European University (CEU), founded and funded by liberal-minded Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros, in seeking to become a springboard for future leaders in the region.

“This is our undertaking:

Integrating central Europe based on our cultural values and on our interests,”

said Tymoteusz Zych, vice-president of Ordo Iuris and dean of the new university.

The CEU was forced out of Hungary by the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has accused Soros of trying to destroy European civilisation with his efforts to support immigrants. Soros says his support for refugees is a humanitarian mission.

“The new university aspires to the noble goal of creating an academic community that dedicates itself to protecting Christian conservative principles,” said Gergely Gulyás, Orbán’s chief of staff, said on Friday.

“It aims to become a bulwark against human rights fundamentalism and political correctness that have become rampant in today’s Europe.”

Poland’s education minister has proposed a law that would exempt academic teachers from disciplinary measures for expressing religious or philosophical views.

Breaking – international train services to resume in June

Hungary train railway
Hungarian railways MAV said on Thursday that significant improvement in the epidemic situation will allow several of its international services to resume from June 1.
 
Hourly services between Budapest and Vienna will resume through Hegyeshalom, the company said in a statement. A direct railjet express service and night train to Switzerland will also restart and trains will leave for Munich every two hours during the day, in addition to a night service.
Services between Romania and Hungary
will be gradually restarted and a Wroclaw-Berlin service will again operate from May 24, in addition to trains to Krakow and Warsaw from May 26. Metropolitan EuroCity trains to Slovakia and the Czech Republic will again run from June 1, with full services resuming after June 13.
 
Báthory EuroCity trains will again operate to Poland from June 1, daily two InterCity services will operate to Kosice (Kassa) and trains will restart to Serbia through Kelebia.
 
One daily service will be again available between Budapest and Zagreb from June 25.

Polish audit office wants to probe PM over presidential election

Mateusz Morawiecki

The head of Poland’s Supreme Audit Office said on Tuesday he had asked prosecutors to launch a criminal investigation against Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and other top government officials over last year’s presidential election.

However, it was unclear whether prosecutors would launch such an investigation. The prosecutors’ office in Warsaw was not immediately available for comment, while Morawiecki shrugged off the move, saying the government had acted constitutionally.

Poland‘s presidential election had initially been scheduled to take place on May 10, 2020, in the middle of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government made preparations for a postal ballot, arguing that it could be held safely despite a rising number of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Election monitors, opposition candidates and EU officials criticised the plan, saying the decision to change the electoral code allowing for the mail vote was rushed and could prevent the vote from being free and fair.

The plan to hold the election on May 10 eventually collapsed and the ballot was held in a traditional way, in two rounds, in June and July, resulting in a second term for the PiS-backed incumbent, Andrzej Duda.

The audit office said Morawiecki and a senior aide had overstepped their powers by trying to organise the election, saying this was the sole competence of the National Election Commission.

Marian Banas, head of the audit office and a longtime critic of PiS, told reporters his office would notify prosecutors of “a suspicion of a crime committed” by Morawiecki and the head of his chancellery, Michal Dworczyk, based on the results of an audit on preparations for the vote.

Two government ministers could face separate charges related to the election, he said.

In response, Morawiecki told a news conference: “Holding the presidential election is a constitutional duty, the election dates are defined in the constitution. This is why we, as the executive power, were obliged to organise the election.”

Separately, state-run news agency PAP quoted a government spokesman as saying that all decisions to start technical preparations for the postal vote were legal.

Morawiecki
Read alsoPolish PM says Czechs agree to withdraw lawsuit about Turow mine

Polish PM says Czechs agree to withdraw lawsuit about Turow mine

Morawiecki

The Czech Republic has agreed to withdraw a lawsuit it filed at the European Union’s top court to halt operations at a lignite coal mine in Poland, the Polish prime minister said early on Tuesday.

On Friday, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ordered Poland to immediately stop mining at the Turow mine operated by state-run PGE, pending a final decision in the case.

The Czech government had argued that a planned expansion of the open-pit mine was environmentally damaging for communities on its side of the border, and that Warsaw had violated EU law by extending mining at Turow until 2026.

But Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the two governments were now on the cusp of an agreement to de-escalate the dispute.

“Given the tightening of cross-border cooperation with the Czech Republic, it seems that we are already very close to an agreement,” Morawiecki said in comments posted on Twitter after an EU summit in Brussels.

“As a result of this agreement, the Czech Republic agreed to withdraw its lawsuit to the CJEU.”

Enviromental groups and Czechs living close to the border had complained about the mine, saying the drinking water supply has been affected and they have suffered from noise and dust as well as subsidence.

“We agreed to set up an expert committee to investigate the environmental issues related to the open pit,” Morawiecki said, adding that PGE would invest to lessen the outflow of water from the mine.

Morawiecki
Read alsoPolish PM says Czechs agree to withdraw lawsuit about Turow mine

Poland to become first NATO country to buy Turkish drones

Turkey Poland drone

Poland will buy 24 armed drones from Turkey, the Polish defence minister said on Saturday, becoming the first NATO member to buy Turkish-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The Bayraktar TB2 drones, the first of which are due to be delivered next year, will be armed with anti-tank projectiles. Poland will also buy a logistics and training package, said Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.

Blaszczak told state radio the Bayraktar TB2 drones

“have proven themselves in wars”

and added that the UAVs would be serviced by a military company, without giving further details.

The contract, which will be concluded without a procurement process, will be signed next week during a visit by Polish President Andrzej Duda to Turkey.

Authorities in fellow NATO member Turkey say the country has become the world’s fourth-largest drone producer since President Tayyip Erdogan

increased domestic production to reduce reliance on Western arms.

Turkish defence technology company Baykar has sold its Bayraktar TB2 armed drone to Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Qatar and Libya. Erdogan said in March that Saudi Arabia was also interested in buying Turkish drones.

Canada scrapped export permits for drone technology to Turkey in April, after concluding that the equipment was used by Azeri forces fighting Armenia in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The parts under embargo included camera systems for Baykar armed drones.

Poland celebrated: outdoor terraces reopened

restaurant-terrace-Hungary-coronavirus-ease

Champagne corks popped at the stroke of midnight on Friday as bars and restaurants in Poland opened their outdoor terraces for the first time in over six months and many Poles went out to celebrate.

Bars and restaurants can now offer outdoor service, with indoor service due to reopen with limited capacity on May 28. Since October, they have been able to serve only take-away food. Additionally,

from Saturday Poles are no longer required to wear masks outside in places where they can observe social distancing.

“We’ve been closed for so long, over 200 days, and it was very stressful and exhausting for different reasons, we didn’t know if we could survive at all,” said Zuzia Mockallo, 34, co-owner of Bar Studio, located in the capital’s landmark building, the Palace of Culture and Science.

“I really feel that the emotions are a bit comparable to the New Year, where everyone has huge expectations of the old year ending and a new opening …

We are very happy and a little excited, a little nervous, but very emotional.”

New coronavirus cases in Poland dropped sharply during April and the government began easing restrictions this month.

The Koszyki shopping centre in central Warsaw, where one of the city’s most popular cluster of bars is located, installed a clock counting down to midnight. Paweł Slupski, the centre’s PR manager, said the mood was

“very much like New Year’s Eve”.

“Life’s just going back to normal,” said Ania Pietrzak, a 37-year-old stylist and costume designer who was one of Bar Studio’s first customers, describing how she missed the freedom to go out and have a drink or just light a cigarette without fear of being fined for not wearing a mask.

On Friday Poland had 3,288 new coronavirus cases compared to a high of 35,251 on April 1. Some 35.7% of adult Poles have received at least one dose of vaccine and 13.6% are fully vaccinated, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Featured image: illustration

V4 Festival to be held end-June

Hungary festival V4

The VéNégy Festival featuring performers from the Visegrád Group is scheduled to be held between June 24 and 27 in Nagymaros, northern Hungary, organisers said on Wednesday.

The festival will see performances from Hungarian bands Halott Pénz, Punnany Massif and Bori Péterffy and the Love Band, among others. Austrian punk-metal band Russkaja will also perform, besides groups from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, they said.

The theatre tent will offer a workshop for V4 theatre professionals ahead of the festival, and will host a

colourful medley of performances from the four countries.

Other programmes will include street performances, sports opportunities and gastro programmes, the organisers said.

Should pandemic regulations not allow the festival to open in June, it will be pushed back to August 4-8, the organisers said in a statement to MTI.

Polish court, state institutions evacuated on day of FX mortgage sitting

flag poland

The buildings of Polish state institutions including the Supreme Court were evacuated due to a bomb threat on Tuesday, the institutions and media said, the day the court’s Civil Chamber is due to issue guidance on Swiss franc mortgages.

The press office of the Supreme Audit Office said on Twitter that its headquarters and some offices around the country had been evacuated due to a bomb threat. Polish media reported that the National Council of the Judiciary was also evacuated.

“As a result of information obtained by e-mail that an explosive had been placed in the Supreme Court building, the First President of the Supreme Court ordered the evacuation of the building,” the court said.

Postponed twice, Tuesday’s Supreme Court sitting was highly anticipated as it will lay out how courts should treat key issues in FX loan cases, such as whether banks can charge interest on a loan with a clause deemed to be abusive and when banks can claim the reimbursement of money.

The court said on Twitter that

security checks were to last until at least 1030 GMT.

The Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary could not immediately be reached for comment. The police declined to comment.

Thousands of Polish borrowers took out mortgages in Swiss francs more than a decade ago to take advantage of low Swiss interest rates but faced higher costs when the zloty slumped. Many have decided to take the banks to court.

orbán morawiecki
Read alsoPoland, Hungary push against “gender equality” at EU social summit

The re-ignition of economies might turn into a struggle for guest labour

Guest Worker Labour Workforce Shortage Vendégmunkás labour market

According to some statistics, in the past five to six years, the number of guest workers working in Hungary have significantly grown, In some sectors, guest workers were the only viable option instead of shutting down. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus pandemic that struck the world unprepared, many guest workers were stuck in their own countries unable to work. But as countries are reopening and the economy is starting to swing back up, a huge competition for workforce is expected.

There is the general belief among working people that guest workers take the job from Hungarians, but that is simply not true. It is quite the opposite. There have been entire sectors where the labour shortage was such a serious issue, that its operation was endangered, says Piacesprofit. There is nothing wrong with guest labour, but it should be adequately controlled and entirely transparent.

Csongor Juhász, the executive director of Prohuman, Hungary’s largest HR provider said that the current upsurge of labour is just the surface. He says that many people who have changed professions from services and the catering industry will, with the reopening of the country, go back to their original professions and in turn that will cause another labour shortage in some sectors.

There are already not enough workforce in sectors like the food industry, processing industry and in some commercial areas.

The above-mentioned re-distribution of the workforce will effect these sectors more severely and according to the professionals at Prohuman, that will cause a huge competition between Hungary and the surrounding countries looking for guest labour. In the Czech Republic, about 15% of the labour force are guest workers.

Csongor Juhász said to Piacesprofit, that Hungary is behind other countries in the labour competition.

It has to compete for non-EU guest labour with countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Croatia and Slovakia. The executive director added that Hungary is in a disadvantageous position due to several factors;

naturally, Western European countries have a better chance of obtaining guest labour due to the higher wages, but other Central and Eastern European countries also have an upper hand. Most guest workers can communicate in those countries in their mother tongues much more easily. The language is a huge barrier for guest workers coming to Hungary.

Another limiting factor is the travel. The authorities in charge have to balance between the proper monitoring of guest workers, in particular to the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but must also satisfy the labour need of affected sectors.

The monitoring should not bottleneck the flow of labour, but it must also ensure that there is as few cases of illegal workers as possible, all this while complying to the measures of the coronavirus pandemic.

If the flow of labour stops for a substantial amount of time, then companies might close their businesses and move to another country.

If this would happen to the car industry and processing industry – which are both major contributors to Hungarian economy –, then Hungary might face severe consequences.

NOVÁK Katalin
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Poland, Hungary push against “gender equality” at EU social summit

orbán morawiecki

Lobbying by Poland and Hungary has led to the removal of the phrase “gender equality” from a draft declaration on advancing social cohesion that the EU is due to publish on Friday, according to diplomats and documents seen by Reuters.

Poland’s nationalist ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) and its eurosceptic ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, promote what they call traditional social values at home and have repeatedly clashed with their more liberal Western peers over the rights of women, gays and migrants.

The two countries opposed mentioning “gender equality” directly in the draft prepared for discussion by the bloc’s 27 national leaders, who are meeting in the Portuguese city of Porto on Friday and Saturday.

While an earlier draft said the bloc would “promote gender equality”, the later version seen by Reuters – which could potentially be redrafted again – avoids the phrase and reads:

“We will step up efforts to fight discrimination and work actively to close gender gaps …and to promote equality.”

European Union diplomats said Warsaw and Budapest had sought the looser language. Both governments have sought to promote Catholic, conservative social values in campaigns that have gone hand-in-hand with increasing state control over media, courts and academics.

Asked to comment on the matter, a Polish official said: “Poland always underlines how important legal clarity is… The Treaty of the European Union very clearly refers not to gender equality but to equality between women and men.” The official did not elaborate.

There was no immediate reply to a request for comment from the Hungarian missions to the EU.

The leaders will commit to an inclusive recovery from the bloc’s record recession triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 700,000 people in Europe, shut businesses and travel, and confined millions to their homes for more than a year.

“Our commitment to unity and solidarity also means ensuring equal opportunities for all and that no one is left behind,” the leaders will declare in mentioning the bloc’s planned green and digital reforms, as well as focus on education and training.

“…The priority will be to move from protecting to creating jobs and to improve job quality,” they will say, according to the latest draft, which also welcomes a proposal to look beyond GDP readings to measure economic and social progress.

The leaders are due to gather in Porto from 1200 GMT.

Twenty-four will attend in person, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and two others dialling in for discussions that will also try to overcome divisions on waiving patents for COVID-19 vaccines, and the EU’s fraught ties with Russia.

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