In Brussels on Tuesday the agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC) was signed; thus a process on creation of a unified European patent system which has spanned five decades has come to fruition – at present with the participation of twenty-five EU Member States.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister János Martonyi received Slovak Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Miroslav Lajčák, who accompanied the President of Slovakia, Ivan Gašparovič, on his two-day visit to Budapest.
Around half a million residents of 150 communities will have access to pure, controlled and healthy drinking water as a result of the work done by the Ministry of Defence and the Hungarian Defence Forces. This announcement was made on February 19 at Medgyesegyháza-Bánkút during the handover of the first complex, containerized water purification and dispenser device.
The agreement on unified patent jurisdiction was signed in Brussels and thus the final stage of the five-decade long process aimed at establishing a unified European patent system has been completed, for the time being with the participation of 25 countries.
The Bundestag’s Tourism Committee of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Sport and Tourism Committee of the Hungarian Parliament held talks on deepening traditionally good tourism relations between the two countries. Representatives of the Ministry for National Economy and professional organizations on behalf of domestic tourism enterprises also participated at the forum organized by the Bundestag, the Hungarian Embassy in Berlin, the Sport and Tourism Committee of Hungary’s National Assembly and the German representation of Hungarian Tourism Plc.
The Hungarian-Macedonian Joint Economic Committee started a two-day meeting in Budapest on Tuesday. State secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó stated that the committee decided that areas of bilateral cooperation include energy, transport, farm and tourism sectors.
The Workgroup on reducing public utility charges including gas and electricity, water, sewage, refuse collection and chimney sweeping, held its first session today.
Administration State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Iván Bába opened the Ministry's new simulative training centre on February 18.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán presented two Lebanese businessmen with the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary for the development of Hungarian-Lebanese relations. Mr. Orbán emphasized that Hungary understands the East's message, and so has many prestigious friends in the East.
While the budget for the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has decreased by some 11%, Hungary will be receiving 12.3 billion euros in agriculture funding within the next financial framework for 2014-2020, compared to 10.4 billion euros in the current period. Hungary's share of the CAP budget has therefore increased from 2.36% to 3.19% for the upcoming financial period.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, February 18, 2013
Zsolt Németh, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented Hungary at the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) on Monday. Following the meeting, the Hungarian State Secretary declared that the Eastern Partnership was also on the agenda.
On February 14, a 25-person delegation led by Deputy State Secretary Mrs Erika Zupcsán Asztalos presented the Hungarian implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Geneva. The members of the delegation included representatives of the legislative branch, the prosecution service, the Central Statistical Office and the Equal Treatment Authority.
Opening speech of H.E. Mr. Zsolt Németh, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition ”European Cultural Diversity: Serbian religious art in Hungary”. Balassi Institute, Brussels 13th, February 2013
The Ministry for National Economy will once again negotiate with banks and offer significant incentives in order to stimulate lending, Minister of State for Taxation and Financial Affairs Gyula Pleschinger said at the Kossuth Rádió weekend programme G7.
Deputy State Secretary Ferenc Kumin stressed that Hungary fully supports the statement of the European Union that was issued at the end of the conference.
Hungary continues to achieve outstanding results in the fight against debt, and thus general government debt as of GDP declined by 6.4 percentage points in comparison to the second quarter of 2010. Socialist governments have never achieved so much.
State Secretary Péter Szijjártó discussed bilateral economic ties, infrastructure development and EU affairs with senior Austrian officials in Vienna on Friday. The State Secretary held talks with , State Secretary of the Austrian Chancellery Josef Ostermayer, General Secretary at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Johannes Kyrle, and local business leaders.
Hungary supports the European integration aspirations of Ukraine at all levels, and plans to continue the cooperation that began with the Transcarpathian region under the auspices of the Eastern Partnership programme; Hungary also wants to increase the number of border crossings between the two countries – said Zsolt Németh, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ungvár (Uzhgorod) on February 15, where he arrived for a two-day official visit to the Transcarpathian region.
A memorial plaque dedicated to Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary in 1944-45, was unveiled in Mukacheve (Munkács), in Ukraine’s Transcarpathian region February 16, 2013.