Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic awarded Mr. Péter Szaló, Deputy State Secretary to the rank of Officer in the National Order of Merit. Deputy State Secretary for Area Management and Construction received the award from Ambassador Roland Galharague during a ceremony at the French Residence in Buda on 25th of April.
Ambassador Roland Galharague appreciated Mr. Szaló’s working career, international publications and professional activity which contributed to the development of friendly relations between Hungary and France. Mr. Péter Szaló is a real Hungarian patriot and a great European person, a friend of France – said the Ambassador.
Deputy State Secretary expressed his gratitude for receiving the award and said that he has often examined French experiences, practices during his work and he intends to facilitate friendship between the two countries in the future too.
Mr. Péter Szaló was involved in numerous projects realized with cooperation of France and Hungary over the past two decades. In 1994 he was co-author of the publication “Towards a New European Space” printed in three languages – English, French and German - and prepared jointly with the University of Stuttgart and the French Academy of Sciences. He was Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Regional Development between 1995 and 1998 during which time he has deepened his knowledge in the French public administration. His experience gained from the French system made a major contribution to the creation of Act XXI of 1996 on Regional Development and Regional Planning.
Between 1998 and 2002 he has worked closely together with DATAR – French administration responsible for agriculture, rural development and regional development – with many other Ministries and with the French Treasury Agency too. Mr Szaló and the president of INFH – French Hungarian Initiative – launched a joint programme of Budapest University of Technology and Economics and the University of Sorbonne.
He was professional vice president of National Regional Development Office in the Prime Minister’s Office between 2002 and 2003. The planning practice carried out in France has strongly influenced the Act XXVI of 2003 on National Regional Development plan.
He was Secretary of State for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development from 2006 to 2008. He participated in the French-German-Hungarian professional cooperation aimed at the working out of the National Strategic Reference Framework. Poles of competitiveness (pôles de compétitivité) approved by the Hungarian Parliament have been worked out under the French example.
From 2010 and under the Hungarian Presidency of the EU besides his other duties, the Deputy State Secretary for Area Management and Construction was also Head of the Urban Development Group. He took part in the drawing up of two manuals: one of them was the Manual on Climate, the French Government contributed to the publication of it too.
(kormany.hu)
