Wednesday sees the start of the Passa Porta International Literary Festival at the Balassi Institute in Brussels; this year Hungarian literature is represented by Viktor Horváth, author of the novel Török tükör (‘Turkish Mirror’).
Remarks questioning the independence of the Hungarian judiciary by European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding are "outrageous and unacceptable," Minister of Public Administration and Justice Tibor Navracsics said in a letter to the commissioner published on Sunday.
Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics has sent a letter today to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe regarding Government decisions. He informed Mr Jagland that the Hungarian Government decided to exclude the possibility of re-election of the President of the National Judicial Office and of all the members of the Media Council.
Bence Rétvári, State Secretary for Parliamentary affairs at the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, has told the Hungarian new agency MTI that the Ministry of Justice condemns the violent incidents that took place on Thursday in Lendvay utca, Budapest.
Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics called it an acceptable compromise in a letter sent to Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland last December that the President of the National and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) should invariably be appointed for nine years term but only for a single term.
The Deputy Prime Minister has sent a letter to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland, regarding the Fourth Amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, on March 7 2013.
The Government launched the most intensive series of anti-corruption measures of the post-change of regime period following its establishment, thereby emphasising its commitment to enhancing the trust of the people in the State and to reinforcing and guaranteeing the responsible management of national assets and public funds.
The European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) is well-placed to become the driving force of inter-regional cooperation, Deputy Prime Minister Navracsics stated, adding that the Central European Initiative (CEI), in turn, may make a valuable contribution towards rejuvenating natural areas of cooperation which once permeated the region.
In a speech in Budapest on Tuesday, Slovakian President Ivan Gašparovič said that Slovak-Hungarian co-operation is increasingly becoming an everyday reality, and that politicians from the two countries must strive to build good neighbourly relations. Following this, Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics said in a short address that Hungary seeks to deepen co-operation in every area with its neighbouring countries.
On Monday 25 February there will be commemoration events around the country for the victims of communism. On this day in 1947 Béla Kovács, General Secretary of the Independent Smallholders’ Party, was unlawfully arrested and later deported to the Soviet Union. In 2000 a resolution adopted by the first Orbán government stipulated that on this day commemorations should take place in every secondary school in the country. This year the Hungarian government’s official commemoration event will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, at the Buda end of the Chain Bridge.