President of the Republic, János Áder appointed László L. Simon as Minister of State for Culture of the Ministry of Human Resources in the Sándor Palace on 18 June 2012.
Hungary has previously undertaken to conform to EU directive regulations on the modernisation of the cages of laying hens by July 31, 2012. Today's warning from Brussels in no way effects this commitment.
Sándor Fazekas held a successful meeting with the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture ahead of the Rio + 20 summit. Of all the Ministers of Agriculture, Mendes Ribeiro Filho received only his Hungarian counterpart for bilateral talks, on which they discussed opportunities for cooperation between the two countries.
Hungary received the Road Safety PIN Award 2012 of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) because it achieved the best reduction in road deaths. Dr. László Felkai, Sate Secretary at the Ministry of Interior and Mr. Zoltán Schváb, Deputy State Secretary for Transport at the Ministry of National Development received jointly the Award on 20 June 2012 in Brussels.
The Government is expected to present to Parliament the latest amendment to the Act on the National Bank of Hungary on Thursday, which Parliament may pass within two weeks, Mihály Varga told journalists on Wednesday.
At a press conference held on 19 June 2012 in the Ministry of National Development in Budapest, NATO was reported to have selected Hungary as the successful applicant for re-opening the upper airspace over Kosovo and restart air traffic. HungaroControl Zrt. may be assigned the duty from spring 2013 if all the required conditions are met, said Zsolt Németh, Parliamentary Minister of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2003 NATO has been seeking a technical solution for opening the upper airspace over Kosovo to the international air traffic, he added.
H. E. János Martonyi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Hungary paid a visit to Jeddah on June 19, 2012 to express his own condolences and those of Hungary and its Government, to the new Crown Prince, His Royal Highness Salman on the occasion of the passing away of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on June 16.
In order to combat tax fraud in agriculture, from 1 July 2012 the regulations of reverse charge taxation shall be applied for trade transactions between domestic taxpayers for certain cereals, oilseeds and protein crops (corn, wheat, barley, rye, oat, triticale, sunflower-seed, rape and rape-seed as well as soybean).
The National Office for Intellectual Property established a non-profit agency, HIPAVILON Magyar Szellemi Tulajdon Ügynökség Nonprofit Kft. as a new market player of Hungary’s system of innovation-oriented institutions to promote the growth and market opportunities of Hungarian innovation.
Viktor Orbán inaugurated the new thermal bathing complex in Nagykáta on Monday. The project situated some sixty kilometres from Budapest was implemented partly from aid supplied from the New Széchenyi Plan and partly from local funding.
On behalf of the Government, Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics expressed his support for the establishment of the National Youth Council to the representatives of the attending civil organisations focusing on young people. By virtue of the foundation of the organisation, Hungary, as the last of the EU Member States, may now join the European Youth Forum, an organisation with a membership of more than a hundred European youth organisations.
In April 2012 gross average wages of the private sector increased by 6.5 percent, whereas net wages excluding family tax allowances were up by 3.5 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year – the Hungarian Statistical Office (KSH) reported earlier this morning in its statistical release.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán offered his condolences due to the death of Crown Prince, heir to the Saudi throne, Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz on Sunday.
The Venice Commission found the Hungarian laws currently under review, that is, the franchise law, the law on the rights of nationalities and the legislation on the prosecution service, democratic on the whole and concluded that they serve constitutionality, Minister of State for Justice Róbert Répássy said after the plenary session of the body on Friday.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, János Martonyi sent the following letter of condolences to His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al-Faisal Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after the recent death of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:
Deputy State Secretary of Foreign Affairs János Hóvári’s Address to the 13th Annual Conference of Global Development Network Hungarian Academy of Sciences, June 16, 2012.
In the past couple of months, in the midst of a protracted financial-economic crisis, the government has carried out structural reforms by which the fiscal balance was made sustainable and general government debt was set on a downward path.
The Hungarian Government has every reason to support Montenegro’s accession to the European Union and NATO, and to encourage the Hungarian business community to build extensive relations with Podgorica, Viktor Orbán said after the meeting. Hungary looks upon Montenegro, a success story based on its economic indicators, as a country of far greater significance than its size would warrant and that plays a major role in the maintenance of regional stability.
The Government is setting up a development cabinet in the interest of fast, well-founded and coordinated preparation and enforcement of government decisions in the field of development policy. The Cabinet will include key members of the Government, and it may invite further members of the Government to its sessions if their remits are affected by an agenda item.
The H4- HunOR Representative Office in Brussels to be opened under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice will provide a more effective and more active presence in Brussels for both the counties of Hungary and the Hungarian research and development sector. By virtue of opening the office, the Ministry hopes to improve the aid level of counties and the entire Hungarian R+D sector available from EU funding. Thanks to the new information network, counties will have a direct link to tender funding made available in Brussels for the fulfilment of their new development tasks.
The Government is setting up a development cabinet in the interest of fast, well-founded and coordinated preparation and enforcement of government decisions in the field of development policy. The Cabinet will include key members of the Government, and it may invite further members of the Government to its sessions if their remits are affected by an agenda item.
At its meeting on Wednesday, the Government decided to provide two new pre-financing systems for businesses and municipalities so that payment of EU funds will be accelerated. In order to finance projects receiving EU funds, a 30 per cent deposit will be given to businesses; in addition, a HUF 50 billion fund will be created for down payments needed by local governments in order to apply for EU grants.
The Governmnet of Hungary considers it a priority to support domestic exports within the framework of its economic policy strategy. In line with this strategy the key objective of the government is -- via providing financing for the export of Hungarian goods and services for enterprises based in Hungary – to enable them to fully exploit their export opportunities that would therefore increase their competitiveness on external markets and to stimulate the Hungarian investments of foreign entrepreneurs.
In the initial four months of 2012 the volume of industrial production declined by 0.8 percent in comparison to the same period of the previous year, while in the fourth month of the year the decline of output volume was 3.1 percent according to both unadjusted and workday-adjusted statistics. Seasonally and workday-adjusted data on a monthly basis signal a decline of 2.4 percent in the observed period. It is a positive sign however that there was substantial increase in total new orders of the manufacturing industry on an annualized basis. In addition, the already apparent positive impact of the opening of Mercedes plant indicates a brighter future with regard to industrial production.
Government commissioner Dr András Levente Gál had another consultation on Wednesday on behalf of the Government with the representatives of the local and international Jewish religious communities participating in the meetings of the Jewish Community Round Table.