Led by Hungary currently holding the Presidency of the Visegrád Cooperation (V4), an extended ministerial meeting on climate policy was held in Budapest on 11 October, 2013. The meeting was also attended by Romanian and Bulgarian climate policy leaders, while a delegate from Lithuania was present as an observer. Hungary was represented by Minister of State for Climate Policy Attila Imre Horváth and Deputy State Secretary Ferenc Hizó at the consultations.

The participants of the ministerial meeting reviewed the topical global issues and those of relevance for the EU, of climate policy. They confirmed it was of continued importance that Visegrád Countries should go on, alongside with other countries in the region, with their existing close cooperation on climate policy and related economic issues.

The Parties identified working out the EU position to be represented at the coming Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Warsaw from 11 to 22 November, 2013,   as one of the topical issues of the negotiations.

The Conference in Warsaw targeted at preparing a transparent global agreement to involve all Parties, to be launched in 2015 and applicable from 2020, and thereby increasing the efficiency of international negotiations on climate change, the participants agreed.

The participants held preliminary discussions on the Draft Council Conclusions to be on the agenda of the Environment Council Session of 14 October 2013, which would establish the above EU position to be represented at the Warsaw Conference.

At the Budapest Meeting, the representatives of the Visegrád Countries adopted a Joint Declaration in which they established their commitment towards the successful continuation of international negotiations on climate change as well as towards making all necessary efforts for the former. They furthermore agreed that Europe could not unilaterally increase its emission reduction commitment since that could put the EU at a competitive disadvantage. The EU must make efforts to encourage other large emitters to set out emission reductions similar to those of the Union, thereby contributing to reducing emission at the global level, the joint position reads.

(Ministry of National Development Communications Department)