Initiatives supporting the formation of a unified European energy infrastructure, efforts designed to promote sustainable development and energy conservation, and issues related to consumers and the protection of consumer rights will continue to be dealt with as priorities during the rotating Hungarian EU-presidency, Minister of National Development Tamás Fellegi said summarizing his experiences during his visit to Brussels between 6-7 September 2010.
The general resolutions above will be manifested through the following specific priorities during the Hungarian presidency.
The Ministry of National Development is preparing with a specific action plan for the establishment of the tender system serving the interests of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The main goal is to help domestic SMEs to receive money from EU funds several orders of magnitude more than earlier – highlighted Tamás Fellegi Minister of National Development on the second day of the Heads of Missions’ Conference organized in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 31st August 2010, in Budapest.
Based on the proposal of Minister of National Development Tamás Fellegi, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán appointed Dr Tamás Iván Kovács Deputy State Secretary in charge of European Union and International Matters of the Ministry of National Development with effect from 1 August 2010.
During her visit to Budapest on 22 July 2010, Jadranka Kosor, Croatian Prime Minister, met with Orbán Viktor, with whom – among others – she conducted talks about transport and energy connections, as well as the European Union accession process of Croatia. Within the framework of the prime ministers’ meeting, Tamás Fellegi, minister responsible for national development, signed a bilateral energy agreement with Đuro Popijač, Croatian minister of economy, labour and entrepreneurship.
On 15 July 2010, Fellegi Tamás, minister for national development, conducted brief talks with the delegation of the European Commission headed by Catherine Day, chief secretary, in Budapest.
Knorr-Bremse Concern, the leading brake-system manufacturers in the world, increased the number of its employees by over 200, almost twice as many as planned, in two years. The number of staff of the factory originally planned was 730, instead of which the number of employees at the company is over 800 at present; furthermore, according to the leadership, this number may even reach 900 this year. Knorr-Bremse Companies Group, with an over 100-year-long history, has moved to a new base of operations, and, during the course of the investment, constructed a new factory unit, with 22,600 m² of useful floor-space, on a close-to 9 hectare area on Helsinki út.
The debate of the package of bills has started with the parliamentary introduction of the modification of the public procurement act. In the introduction, János Fónagy, the political State Secretary of the Ministry of National Development emphasised that the aim of the Government with the modification of the act was to put small- and medium-sized enterprises in a position, to simplify procedures and to stem corruption enmeshing everything.
The National Assembly adopted the Political Declaration at its session on 14 June 2010 which can be downloaded from the following link.