A quintilateral expert-level ad hoc task force will soon start consultations as to the specific form of the package that is designed to contain the rules related to the independence of the Hungarian central bank, Tamás Fellegi, minister without portfolio said on Thursday in Washington, where he conducted meetings with the country team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concerned with Hungary.

Legal experts from the European Central Bank, the European Commission, the IMF, the Hungarian Government and the National Bank of Hungary will conduct consultations on the package of rules concerning the independence of the central bank, the passage of which constitutes a pre-condition of the commencement of official negotiations.

In addition to the IMF team headed by Christoph Rosenberg with whom Tamás Fellegi had meetings on Wednesday, the minister without portfolio also met Charles Collyns, US Treasury Assistant Secretary for International Finance and Charles Dallara, Managing Director of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), who represents private creditors in connection with the Greek financial crisis.

Tamás Fellegi stressed, the consultations conducted with the IMF continue to serve the purpose of enabling Hungary to engage in official negotiations within the shortest possible time.

"Official negotiations have not yet begun. The purpose of the consultations held at this point in time is to facilitate the commencement of the actual negotiations within the shortest possible time, as part of which we may deal with specific issues, such as the amount of the financial package Hungary may obtain from the joint negotiating delegation of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF, the terms and conditions under which funds will be made available and the programme attached to the facility.”
"I believe there is no obstacle to the commencement of the negotiations on our part. As for the conditions that the IMF would like to see as pre-conditions, the Hungarian Government is willing and able to meet those conditions”, the Minister said.

"In actual fact, the question is what is happening on the European scene. We are awaiting the review of the European Central Bank regarding the decisions and developments of recent periods and look forward to the meeting in the near future - the date is currently being determined - of an expert-level task force comprised of legal experts from the European Central Bank, the European Commission, the IMF, the Hungarian Government and the National Bank of Hungary to be held for the purpose of discussing the specific form of the package which contains rules related to the independence of the central bank and which constitutes, so to speak, a pre-condition of the commencement of the negotiations”, Tamás Fellegi said.

The minister without portfolio indicated, official negotiations may only begin after the task force consultations, and the purpose of the current visit to Washington was not to designate a date for the commencement of negotiations.

"We did not come here to designate a date. The situation is the same as it was before our last meeting here; another phase of consultations with the European institutions has been closed. Last week, the Hungarian Government sent its answers to the European Commission, well before the expiry of the designated deadline, in response to the remarks stated in Director-General Marco Buti’s letter and we are currently awaiting reactions to these answers from the Commission and also the Central Bank. We have now discussed the opinions on these issues with the representatives of the IMF in Washington”, the minister without portfolio said.

Tamás Fellegi said, the issue emerged at his meetings conducted with the IMF whether „we may be able to use the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank for the commencement of negotiations”.

"This depends on how swiftly and how effectively we are able to come to an agreement with the European Central Bank and the European Commission. It is widely known that we are negotiating with a troika, and in order to start the negotiations, all three parties concerned, the Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund must give Hungary the green light. If this is achieved before the spring session, which will take place on 21-22 April in Washington, we shall be able to start negotiations also here, in Washington. If not, the negotiations will have to be put on hold, Tamás Fellegi said.

As part of his several-day programme in Washington, Tamás Fellegi delivered a lecture and conducted a background discussion with reputable US economic policy researchers and experts at the event concerned with the crisis of the eurozone from the perspective of a non-eurozone member state organised by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). After this, the Minister attended a panel discussion on the economic situation and Hungary’s prospects at the conference of the Transatlantic Academy at the invitation of the German Marshall Fund. The discussion focused on the key issues and developments of the Hungarian economy and internal politics in Hungary.

(MTI; Press Office of Tamás Fellegi, minister without portfolio)