Elimination of poverty must be addressed with offering jobs, not with social subsidies, the state secretary for social inclusion at the Ministry of Human Resources said in Brussels.

Speaking to MTI after taking part at a forum dealing with poverty issues, Zoltán Kovács said that the EU priority in this field was the integration of the Roma into the labour market. He added that apart from creating jobs and educating the poor, access to health services and social housing must be agreed upon as goals.

Responding to the criticism on Hungary's public works scheme that it fails to contribute to rising private-sector employment, Kovács said that the government's aim was to create more jobs on the market but some groups of society must first be driven back to the "world of labour".

(MTI - State Secretariat for Social Inclusion)