Visegrád Four

PM Orbán knows the solution to migration

Viktor Orbán Russia NATO secret plan PM Orbán

Illegal migration could be resolved but “the European Union is reluctant to take that course”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a press briefing held together with his Visegrád Group counterparts in Bratislava on Monday.

“The Hungarian position is unchanged: once a request is filed to enter the EU, the applicant must physically stay outside the European borders until their application is evaluated,” Orbán said.

“If we declared that only those persons whose procedures are completed and to whom a member state has granted entry can enter the EU, the problem would be over,” Orbán said.

The EU is reluctant to take that step, and “we need to continue fighting to that end”, Orbán said.

Concerning a budget change proposal by the European Commission, Orbán said the funds that would be allocated to fighting illegal migration were “ridiculously low”. He said the proposal, in its current form, was “ridiculous and unfit for discussion”, and called for another EC proposal “that could be taken seriously”.

Apart from illegal migration, participants in the V4 meeting also discussed the situation in Ukraine, issues around the Western Balkans and the EU’s green agreement.

Orbán’s Facebook post on the matter: he wrote “migrants have to be kept outside”:

Concerning the Western Balkans, Orbán said countries in the region shared the position that the region’s European integration should  be accelerated. Though “Ukraine currently is largely in the focus”, other problems should not be neglected such as “growing tensions in the Balkans that require refined and complex solutions”, Orbán said, adding that “the EU’s treatment of those problems has been laden with mistakes and failures”. He called for a European Balkans policy that “offers a clear perspective of membership” to peoples in the region. He said “an impression that Ukraine could sooner become an EU member than countries that have been candidates for years must be prevented”.

Orbán welcomed the Serbian authorities’ decision to release three Kosovan police officers at his request, and said he was glad that “rapidly increasing tension could be somewhat mitigated”.

Concerning the EU’s green deal and its impacts on competitiveness, Orbán highlighted the significance of a green transition, but called for an implementation that would “not compromise the competitiveness of Hungary and that of central Europe”. He called for a “green transition together with industry but not without industry and especially not against industry.”

Participants in the meeting reviewed the war situation in Ukraine, Orbán said, but added that “the goal is not to have this issue in the focus of the cooperation”. Hungary shares concerns over grain imports from Ukraine, he said. “We support that the grain should reach destinations outside Europe, but we do not support that the grain should end up for example in Hungary and completely destroy the Hungarian grain markets,” he said.

The Bratislava meeting was one of the closing events of the Slovak V4 presidency. The presidency will be taken over by Czechia in July.

Stunning sight: Ghost hotel in Visegrád, Hungary – PHOTO GALLERY

visegrád ghost hotel

Visegrád in the Central Hungarian region is famous among Hungarians and foreign tourists alike. The town’s castle, which consists of a lower castle and a citadel, is of great importance. In the Middle Ages, it was one of the most important residences of the Hungarian kings. Later, it was the site of the 1991 meeting of the Visegrád Group (V4). However, this article is about something that is a bit different: a ghost hotel in Visegrád.

The construction of the hotel started in 2006. However, the contractor left the site in autumn 2009, Sokszínű Vidék writes.

There are 230 rooms on 12 floors and a 32-metre high andesite rock in the lobby. The Visegrád hotel started life as a five-star hotel 17 years ago but has not been completed ever since.

The ghost hotel is still half-finished. Krisztián Borbély (Ambient Lights) recently took some breathtaking shots of the “haunted” building. The photos were made available to Daily News Hungary by the photographer: check them out below!

Photo gallery

Find Krisztián Borbély/Ambient Lights on Facebook HERE, and on Instagram HERE.

Hungarian consumption falls short of even that of Romania

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Hungary is well below the EU average, with Hungarian household consumption reaching 72 percent of the EU average.

Hungarians are closing the gap, but it is not enough

In the past year, Hungarian household consumption has risen by 2 percent compared to the EU average, reaching 70 percent of the EU average in 2021 and 72 percent in 2022, Eurostat data show.

However, it is still the second worst in the European Union, with only the Bulgarians doing worse.

Comparison Hungary

Hungarian consumption is similar to that of Slovakia, although experts have been disputing the credibility of the Slovak data for years, as other data do not support Slovakia’s poor performance.

Croatia stands at 75 percent, while Greece is at the bottom of the list with 78 percent. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Romania reaches 88 percent of the EU average. In recent years, Romania has already overtaken Hungary and even the other V4 countries in per capita consumption.

This year, the Hungarian indicator has improved by two percentage points, which, if maintained in the coming years, would take 14 years to reach the EU average, napi.hu reports.

Hungary, Poland and Czechia will cooperate to defend Slovak airspace

Hungarian Defence Forces Fighter Jet Military Aircraft Gripen

The member states of the Visegrad Group are cooperating in a close alliance, the Hungarian defence minister said at a meeting of the group’s defence ministers in Slovakia on Monday, where they signed an agreement on policing airspace.

Under the agreement, Hungary, Poland and Czechia will cooperate to defend Slovak airspace until the end of 2024, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said.

A ministry statement quoted Szalay-Bobrovniczky as saying that the agreement was a sign that the Visegrad Group “is alive and well, and able and ready to continue working for the region’s security and welfare” at a time when many augur its demise.

The war in a neighbouring country, which has hit the region harder than others, makes cooperation all the more important, he said. On the first day of the meeting, a state secretary of Germany, an important ally, also joined the talks to review the most pressing defence issues, he said.

Boosting defence capacities is in the joint interest of V4 member states, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said. They regularly consult on NATO’s measures to strengthen its eastern flank, a process in which the V4 has an important role, he said. Another important project “is the regular deployment of the V4 EU Battlegroup, which has been on standby in the first half of 2023 for the third time,” he said.

The ministers also discussed the impact of the war on regional security, and the group’s opportunities to support Ukraine.

Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that while Hungary was doing its utmost to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, the country, NATO and EU all had a vested interest in brokering peace. Hungary continues to refuse to provide lethal aid to Ukraine, he said.

While the Visegrad countries have differing views on the road to peace, “dialogue and cooperation are ongoing on pragmatic policy issues”, he said.

Czechia will take over the rotating presidency of the group on July 1.

As we wrote today, Polish general would support Hungary’s exclusion from NATO, details HERE.

V4 Festival to offer over 100 programmes

Visegrád Four

The VéNégy Festival (Visegrad Four) and Theatre Meeting will offer a mix of programmes including theater and music productions, workshops, film screenings, art exhibitions and folk dance shows in Nagymaros, in northern Hungary, on June 22-25, the organisers said on Wednesday.

The festival has become the largest such event in the Danube Bend region over the past ten years and will feature over 100 programmes on eight stages, Domonkos Márk Kiss, the festival director, told a press conference.

The line-up for concerts includes the Dutch supergroup Kraak+Smaak and soul diva Sharon Kovacs, Austria’s upcoming group Cari Cari, Slovakia’s Lash+Grey, Poland’s Ina West, Czehia’s Kill the Dandies! and Hungary’s all popular Halott Penz and the Bagossy Brothers group, he said.

On the theatre scene, the world renowned Polish company Song of the Goat will return to the VéNégy stage with performing a rock-opera version of Sophocles’ Antigone.

In a highlight event another Polish act, a spectacular multi-award winning performance by the KTO Theatre will be shown.

V4 European affairs committees adopt joint statement

v4

The European affairs parliamentary committees of Visegrad Group countries meeting in Budapest on Monday “resolutely condemned” the war in Ukraine in a joint closing statement that also drew the European Union’s attention to the challenge posed by Ukrainian grain.

After the meeting, Richárd Hörcsik, the (Fidesz) head of parliament’s European affairs committee, said the statement, besides addressing the war in Ukraine, focused on issues affecting the everyday life of the V4, energy security among them.

Referring to Ukrainian grain, he said there was “a problem”, and agriculture was a “vitally important sector” in all four countries. The current situation should not be allowed to have a severely adverse effect on their farmers, he added.

“Our future is at stake,” Hörcsik said, adding that a meeting of the presidents of the EU Affairs Committees of the European Union Parliaments (COSAC) in Sweden in May would present an opportunity to further address the issue.

Meanwhile, he said that whereas Visegrad Four countries pursued different policies in many respects, “we still look to what unites us”. Some issues can best be resolved in the EU space more easily together than individually, he said.

The closing statement expressed support for the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine and for preserving the country’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.

The committees called for an immediate halt to intentional attacks against vital infrastructure and civilian targets in Ukraine. They highlighted a UN General Assembly resolution citing the organisation’s founding document which they said would serve as a basis of “comprehensive, fair and permanent peace” in Ukraine.

Also, they called for creating a mechanism in line with international law for calling Russia fully to account for its actions.

The participants of the meeting expressed appreciation for the EU to offer candidate status to Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia-Herzegovina and the start of accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia after several years of delay. At the same time, they called for preparations of the candidacy of Georgia to be speeded up, adding that they expect the EU’s enlargement policy to get new impetus during the next presidency.

They expressed support for strengthening the external borders of the EU in order to boost effective action against illegal migration and human smuggling.

Czech expert: V4 cooperation dying because of Orbán

Viktor Orbán Russia NATO secret plan PM Orbán

Josef Mlejnek, a Czech politologist, said that the V4 cooperation is in a state of clinical death. And that is because of Viktor Orbán.

According to index.hu, Mr Mlejnek talked about the issue to FORUM 24, a Czech media outlet. He said Orbán’s Russia policy baulks the cooperation between Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia. Therefore, they have to wait for the change of the government in Hungary, which would take a long time, he added. He highlighted that Hungary was a very problematic member of the cooperation because the other three states supported Ukraine. But Hungary is not alone.

Speaker: Hungary, Malta ‘on the side of peace’

Hungary and Malta “are on the side of peace”, according to a parliamentary press office statement released on Thursday after Speaker of Parliament Laszlo Kover received Maltese counterpart Angelo Farrugia in Budapest. The speakers discussed strengthening political, economic and tourism ties as well as broadening of parliamentary cooperation, the statement said. Malta is an important EU partner of Hungary both bilaterally and multilaterally, the speakers agreed, adding that joint action in international forums bolstered their advocacy capacities, MTI wrote.

They added that the war in Ukraine should be brought to an end as quickly as possible with a ceasefire and a peace treaty, and the EU should offer effective support while creating safeguards for its own security, the statement added.

Read also:

Upcoming tension? New Czech president awaits government change in Hungary

petr pavel le monde interview

In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, Petr Pavel, the new Czech president, also spoke about Viktor Orbán and the cooperation between the Visegrád Four. He believes that the Hungarian leadership will not be here forever.

Petr Pavel, who will take office as head of state on 9 March, said in an interview with the French daily on Monday that negotiations with Russia were pointless because Moscow was not willing to reach an agreement.

He added that the Czech Republic should not be a bridge between the West and the East. Rather, it should clearly pull towards the former. Commenting on the work of his predecessors, he said that for him “this kind of ambition is very strange”, as it is impossible to stand in the middle, Index writes.

In the interview, the Czech president also spoke about Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán and the cooperation of the Visegrád Four. “The V4 needs a thorough overhaul, and we need to have very serious discussions about the future of the grouping,” he said. According to him, there is no point in reorganising the V4 from the ground up. He said that it would be easier to wait for a change of government in Hungary. He said that the Hungarian leadership will not be here forever. Sooner or later, there will be a change.

Petr Pavel giving an interview to Le Monde:

New Czech president
Read also Orbán in trouble? New Czech president would end V4 cooperation

Orbán in trouble? New Czech president would end V4 cooperation

New Czech president

Petr Pavel, the president-elect of the Czech Republic, said he would like to initiate a debate about the possible termination of the V4 cooperation. The partnership consists of Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland and was restarted in 1990 after the fall of the Communism in Central Europe.

President Pavel also said he would like to deliver fighter jets for Ukraine and added that the V4 cooperation was in a crisis. That is because its members’ standpoint significantly differ on how they should treat Ukraine and Russia’s invasion, Mandiner wrote. Orbán highlights the need for peace every time, while the new Czech president would support Ukraine to help Zelenskiy defeat the invadors. Meanwhile, the outgoing Czech president, Milos Zeman, supports the strengthening of the V4 cooperation.

The Hungarian and the Czech president:

Hungarian President was in Prague

The Visegrád cooperation is an alliance of the heart and mind, President Katalin Novák said at a joint press conference with outgoing Czech counterpart Milos Zeman in Prague on Friday. Novák said “those who attack the Visegrád cooperation also attack the alliance of the heart and mind” and vowed to work effectively towards countering such attacks while she is in office as president. She added that as a strong supporter of the Visegrád cooperation she believed in its power to integrate common economic, cultural and historical values.

Novák said her talks with Zeman focused on three main topics: the Russian-Ukrainian war, Czech-Hungarian bilateral cooperation and Visegrád ties. She said they both condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and stated support to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. They also stated their support to brokering peace as soon as possible as a solution to the conflict. As regards bilateral relations, Novák pledged to further strengthen them in the economy and in the areas of culture and tourism.

President Novák decorated Zeman. “Hungary respects its friends”, Novák said:

Answering a question, Novák  said NATO’s expansion with Sweden and Finland was fundamentally important. At the meeting, Novák presented to Zeman the Order of Merit of Hungary, Grand Cross with Chain “as an expression of the Hungarian nation’s esteem” for his achievements in strengthening the friendship between the two countries and enhancing Visegrád cooperation. The Hungarian president also held informal talks with president-elect Petr Pavel. Below you may check out some photos. Pavel said in a Facebook post that Hungary and Czechia are allies but their opinion differ.

Orbán Viktor Kassa
Read alsoPM Orbán: Visegrád Group ‘still has a future’

Minister: Visegrád Group cooperation doing as good as ever

Visegred Group Prime Ministers

The “waves” caused by the war in Ukraine within the Central European Visegrád Group seem to be disappearing, Zsolt Németh, the head of the Hungarian parliament’s foreign affairs committee said, in Bratislava on Monday.

Over the past year, the grouping comprising Hungary, Czechia, Poland and Slovakia has been somewhat shaken by the war, Németh said after a meeting of V4 foreign affairs parliamentary committees, adding, however, that the cooperation was “doing well”.

Over the coming period, the V4 will focus on establishing more and more links between them “in the name of connectivity”, Németh said. The biggest beneficiaries of this, he said, would be southern Poland, northern Czechia, southern Slovakia and northern Hungary. The grouping has seen significant accomplishments in recent years, and there are more projects nearing completion, such as the two new bridges on the river Danube, he said.

Another crucial task, Németh said, was presenting a united front to outside players such as the European Union. He noted as an example that the V4 had thwarted the implementation of migrant resettlement quotas in 2016. All four countries will have greater influence if they can be united on issues on which they agree, he said.

One such issue discussed at Monday’s meeting was that of the Western Balkans, Németh said. He said the war had caused the EU to realise that the solution could be enlargement. This is reflected in the decision to start accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia as well as the granting of candidate country status to Ukraine, he added.

EU funds European Union
Read alsoEU funds will not arrive on time to Hungary

Hungary and other V4 countries gave a patrol ship to Libya

Libya coast guard ship

Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush received the keys to the first patrol ship funded by the Visegrád Group, designed to curb people smuggling and patrol the Mediterranean shore, in Adria, in Italy, on Tuesday.

Olivér Várhelyi, the European commissioner for neighbourhood policy and enlargement, said the 20 meter ship, able to carry 200 people, was the first to be fully funded by Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The Visegrad Group pledged in 2017 to deliver 4 ships to Libyan border patrol, he said.

Here is his Facebook post:

The ships will help to “curb illegal migration across the sea and to block a route which people smugglers and criminal organisations use to enrich themselves,” he said. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who also attended the event, said Libya was a key starting point for illegal migrants in Europe. The European Union and Italy also support the project in which Libya will have further 2 ships built by year-end and will receive two used ones. Italy has trained Libyan border patrol troops and will oversee the maintenance of the ships.

Migration refugee camp EU migration pact
Read also Armed conflict, one death between migrant groups near the Hungarian border

PM Orbán: Visegrád Group ‘still has a future’

Orbán Viktor Kassa

Specific and difficult issues tie the Visegrad Group of countries together, and it is easier to address them together than separately, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Thursday in Kosice (Kassa), Slovakia. So the V4 “still has a future”, Orbán added.

Common challenges include illegal migration, the energy crisis, preventing a recession and protecting the external Schengen borders, Orbán told a joint press conference at the summit meeting of the prime ministers of the Visegrad countries — Czechia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.

The prime minister said V4 cooperation amounted to “a success story of 30 years” based on the conviction the member countries had “common interests and many common positions”.

Orbán said the war in Ukraine was expected to be drawn-out, so migration pressure from that direction would increase for the foreseeable future. The V4 demand that the EU take a share of this burden was a fair one, he added.

Migration pressure from the south, he said, would also grow. He noted that Hungary had joined with Serbia and Austria to help each other in border protection, and he had asked his counterparts to consider contributing to this initiative and had received a positive response. Orbán said he would recommend to his Serbian and Austrian counterparts that they accept support offered by the other V4 members.

PM Orbán scarf scandal
Read alsoPM Orbán’s scarf on the agenda at Visegrád 4 meeting

Meanwhile, the prime minister underlined that Hungary backs Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, and Hungary’s parliament will consider the matter in its first session next year. “The Swedes and Finns haven’t lost a single minute because of Hungary,” he said, adding that Hungary was committed to providing the necessary support for their accession to the alliance.

Asked about a Hungarian parliament resolution on the future of the European Union, Orbán said the issue had been swamped by the war in Ukraine, though at the time every country had expressed its opinion, including Hungary. After a debate, Hungary’s parliament voted for a resolution envisaging a European Parliament “with reduced powers”. Rather than being directly elected, MEPs would be selected on the basis of national delegations, he said, adding that this had been a declaration of war as far as the EP was concerned.

Regarding the issue of a pending agreement between the European Commission and Hungary on unlocking the country’s EU funding, Orbán said that “all blocks” to reaching a deal “have been removed”. He said Hungary had struck an agreement with the EC on 17 requirements which “they told us they wanted”. “We have substantiated and implemented them,” the prime minister added.

Addressing the question of military aid in connection with the war in Ukraine, the prime minister said the V4 comprises four sovereign states, “and decisions on military aid is the competence of the sovereign state”.

Orbán noted the V4 had a common stance regarding the strategic goals of Ukraine and Russia. Hungary concurs that Russia must not be allowed to threaten European security and there should be a sovereign Ukraine between the NATO member states and Russia that preserves its territorial integrity, he added.

euro money european union
Read alsoEP votes to recommend freezing Hungary funding — UPDATED

PM Orbán’s scarf on the agenda at Visegrád 4 meeting

PM Orbán scarf scandal

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wore a scarf depicting Great Hungary at the Hungary-Greece friendly football match. The incident turned into such a massive scandal that even the Visegrád Four included it in its agenda. The Slovak prime minister reacted.

Orbán’s scarf scandal

Viktor Orbán was spotted sporting a scarf depicting Great Hungary at a football match. As we reported earlier, the incident stirred up a huge scandal.

Ukraine, Romania and Croatia expressed their disapproval and demanded an apology from Hungary. Viktor Orbán reacted on his social media page. He said football had nothing to do with politics and we should not have read more into it than it actually was.

Visegrád Four meetings

On Thursday, the Visegrád Group, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland will meet in eastern Slovakia, Reuters reports.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala issued several statements saying that he would bring up Orbán’s scarf at the V4 meeting. “What we hear from time to time about Hungary, whether in the form of statements or political decisions, certainly does not help our situation,” shared Fiala when asked about the Hungarian government’s pro-Russian policy.

PM Orbán scarf scandal
Read alsoPM Orbán’s scarf on the agenda at Visegrád 4 meeting

Slovak Prime Minister hits back

The Hungarian prime minister streamed live on Facebook prior to the V4 summit. Orbán was seen wearing a Slovak scarf, which he shared with Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Hegger, writes rtl.hu.

“Hungary and Slovakia are two good friends! The V4 summit is about to start in Kassa,” Orbán wrote. Heger also shared a picture of the two, writing, “I’ve noticed that Viktor Orbán had an old scarf, so I gave him a new one today.”

PM Orbán scarf scandal
Read alsoPM Orbán’s scarf scandal extends: Austria jokes, Slovakia horrified, Orbán reacted

Forint weakens again because of Visegrád Four bad news

forint historic lows

The forint is among the most volatile national currencies of the world. Therefore, even some minor bad news coming from Brussels or other international organisations can toss it down a slope. That is what happened yesterday, and the effects are still palpable today.

According to napi.hu, the currency exchange rate of the forint started to plunge yesterday. Euro price jumped to 414, and we had to pay more than HUF 400 for the dollar. That is because the Czechs and the Poles announced they would boycott the next scheduled V4 (Visegrád Four) meeting. Furthermore, because of the Ukraine aid, it might happen that the EU will probably not be able to decide about the EUR billions Hungary is entitled to but rejected to get due to corruption allegations on 22 November.

On Friday morning, the euro is still above the 410 threshold, while the dollar is almost 400 again.

Hungarian forint state budget historic lows
Read alsoMissile attack against Poland sent the Hungarian forint plummeting again

House Speaker expresses regret over cancellation of V4 speakers’ meeting in Bratislava

Speaker of Parliament László Kövér on Thursday expressed regret over the cancellation of the Visegrád Group meeting of speakers in Bratislava next week, the parliament’s press office said. “In the past 30 years, regional cooperation by the four countries have helped bridge ideological differences, and we successfully represented our common interests together,” he said.

“Remarks by the Czech parliamentary speaker are untrue and disrespectful; they contravene the facts and question the Hungarian government’s right to pursue policies along the lines of Hungarian national interests,” the statement added. Kövér’s Czech counterpart said yesterday that Hungary was a Trojan horse of Russia in the European Union.

Visegrád Four
Read also“Hungarians are Trojan horses of the Russians” – Czechs and Poles boycott V4 meeting

“Hungarians are Trojan horses of the Russians” – Czechs and Poles boycott V4 meeting

Visegrád Four

Hungary is usually the last country to agree to EU sanctions packages. They ask for concessions and threaten not to support further sanctions. This is the view of the President of the Czech Chamber of Deputies. Slovakia cancelled the Visegrád 4 meeting.

“Because of Hungary’s energy policy, the European Union cannot have a unified position. The Hungarian government has a pro-Russian policy,” said Seznam Zprav. This is why Czechs are boycotting the upcoming meeting of V4 presidents in Bratislava.

Read alsoChinese secret police in Hungary

According to information from Slovak Napunk, the meeting has also been rejected by Markéta Pekarová Adamová, president of the Czech Chamber of Deputies, and Milos Vystrcil, president of the Czech Senate, who said it was a way of signalling their disagreement with the Hungarians.

According to diplomatic sources, the presidents of the two houses of the Polish parliament will not attend the meeting. Slovakia will, therefore, not hold the meeting as planned.

Mikulás Bek, the Czech minister for European affairs, says the Hungarian government was attracting more and more critics, rtl.hu reports.

Kövér László Egypt
Read alsoEgypt as a potential energy supplier for Hungary?

Hungary’s competitiveness improves, outperforms Visegrád Group

visegrad group prime minister

Hungary’s competitiveness has risen to take place 17 among European Union countries, over the average of Visegrád Group members, Ákos Szalai of the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) told a press conference on Tuesday, presenting the NBH’s Competitiveness Report 2022.

The report uses 160 indicators to gain a comprehensive and objective image of Hungary’s competitiveness, Szalai said. The report mostly leans on 2021 data, he noted.

At the same time, NBH said a switch to a growth model based on sustainable, quality factors from one founded on quantity will require a “competitiveness turnaround”.

Hungary is ahead of the European Union average in a number of gauges of quantity, but he said the country has “much room for improvement” when it comes to indicators of quality. While the local labour market is close to full employment, gauges of labour productivity are low in EU comparison, and although the investment rate is high, the share of investments in software or communications is low. The high complexity of exports indicates a competitive export sector, but the value-added of those products is low, the NBH said.

The NBH said switching to a growth model driven by knowledge and technology may only be sustainable if the change is accompanied by a broad expansion of digitalisation and a green revolution. It noted that while Hungary’s digital infrastructure is competitive in international comparison, boosting its use from relatively low levels requires an improvement of user skills, more business digitalisation and state-supported data reform. It added that the rate of renewable energy used for Hungary’s energy-intensive economy is just 14 percent, and rising at a rate under the EU average.

The NBH called competitiveness of human capital the “aegis” of convergence with a sustainable balance, noting that productivity in Hungary has risen to the largest degree in the EU since 2011, supported in large part by family subsidies. It highlighted the need to strengthen modern skills transfer for the future labour market in primary and secondary schools, while improving staff numbers and quality at universities and making continuous improvements to adult education.

Austrian flag
Read alsoEvery fourth worker is Hungarian in this Austrian province

Slovak foreign minister: Orbán plays from Kremlin playbook

Slovak foreign minister

Hungary’s pro-peace government “won’t rise to the provocations of the Slovak foreign minister,” a government official said on Wednesday, reacting to Rastislav Káčer’s remark that “the Hungarian government’s arguments often align with the Kremlin’s propaganda used in its war of disinformation.”

Tamás Menczer, the state secretary responsible for bilateral relations, said Káčer had shown several times in the past “that he doesn’t like Hungarians”. “But we won’t react to provocation, and we’ll work to preserve the strength of the Visegrád Group…” he said. The government will continue to act according to Hungarian interests, and work for the swiftest possible ceasefire and peace, he said.

According to 444.hu, Rastislav Káčer, the new Slovak foreign minister, talked about the foreign policy of Hungary and the Visegrád cooperation in an interview. He said that the Hungarian government’s media campaign arguing the EU sanctions did not work, harm the EU more than Russian and icrease inflation was a mistake. He said that the Kremlin uses such arguments in its disinformation war. “Hungary is alone with that view in the European Union and has become isolated from its Western allies”, Káčer added.

In the Visegrád cooperation, only Hungary’s relationship with Russia is a problem. He said Hungary’s stance towards Ukraine was different even before the war, and it was the only NATO member state blocking the Ukraine-NATO discussions.

Káčer has been serving as the foreign minister of Hungary’s northern neighbour since September.

viktor orbán 23 october
Read alsoOrbán’s Fidesz rejected twice to discuss Finnish, Swedish NATO accession today!

Hungarian President: Aim is to secure long-term peace

katalin novák hungary president

After meeting Visegrád Group (V4) counterparts on Tuesday in Bratislava, President Katalin Novák said a common aim was to secure a “just peace” and ensure “long-term peace” in Europe.

At the meeting, the V4 heads of state condemned the attack on Ukraine and the attacks against civilians, Novák noted at a press conference. Commenting on the statement issued at Poland’s initiative, she said eleven heads of state had joined in condemning the Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities, considered a war crime under international law.

Commenting on the energy crisis, Novák called the recent attacks against the Nord Stream gas pipelines “unacceptable”. The V4 demands a thorough and swift investigation with a view to preventing any further similar attacks, she said.

Regarding illegal migration, the president noted that V4 countries were particularly affected. Almost 200,000 illegal migrants were stopped at Hungary’s southern border this year, she noted, adding that a strong, common response was needed to handle the pressure of illegal migration.

She also noted Hungarians had from the first day of the war provided shelter and other aid to refugees from Ukraine.

Qatar Abdulla Falah Abdulla Al Dosari
Read alsoQatar Ambassador to Budapest: Hungary is very rich in human wealth