Slovakia’s current government is a strong partner which delivers on its diplomatic promises, Parliamentary State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Zsolt Németh said in an interview to Slovak daily newspaper Sme published December 3, 2012.

Dialogue between the two countries has intensified since 2010, but Slovakia’s previous government led by Iveta Radicova had been able to implement only a small portion of its agreements with Hungary.

Parliamentary State Secretary Németh said Hungary and Slovakia were now in constant contact, something unseen during the term of Fico’s previous government. They share the view that the current crisis has mainly hit the “western world” and the European Union and its Member States need to overhaul their economic thinking.

Asked about Hungary’s unorthodox economic policy, Parliamentary State Secretary Németh said that efforts to tackle economic problems over the past 20 years had been based on the “recipe of restriction”. As Central European societies are no longer able to tolerate austerity measures, the economic burdens must be distributed more equitably, he said, referring to measures to apply bank and sectoral taxes. Parliamentary State Secretary Németh insisted that Hungary had been the first to apply the new economic methods, which had since been taken over by other countries. “Slovakia’s political leaders seem to foster similar views,” he said.

(MTI, MFA)