Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met the management of German carmaker Audi in Munich to discuss progress on current investment and further cooperation, Orban's spokesman told MTI on Thursday.
The Hungarian government regrets but acknowledges that the European Commission did not accept the legal arguments of the Hungarian reply of 29 November 2011, which had responded to the detailed EC statement in regard to the infringement procedure on the extra tax for the telecom sector, and it decided to refer the case to the European Court of Justice.
Transport ministers of the Visegrád countries and six other EU Member States affected by the Cohesion Funds met Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas in Prague on 20 March 2012. The purpose of the consultation held on the initiatives of the current Czech presidency of the Visegrád countries was to present the mutual positions on the draft regulations related to the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) before the Transport Council’s relevant meeting.
Hungary's government is carrying out strong, swift and deep reforms and therefore criticisms by the European Union do not come as a surprise, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during a visit to Munich on Thursday.
The popularity of the SZÉP Card has proven to be greater than it had been anticipated. According to the Ministry for National Economy, the electronic voucher card may already in this year generate extra demand worth ten billion forints for the domestic tourism industry. Employers transferred 10.5bn HUF to cover fringe benefits to electronic voucher cards in the first quarter. From 15 April every POS terminal of the banks which have joined the system will be compatible with SZÉP Cards.
With approval of the Ministry of National Development, renovation of minor roads registered under four and five-digit numbers is expected to start along nearly 945 km this year in the framework of the Regional Operational Programmes under the New Széchenyi Plan. In the first project to start on 21 March 2012, HUF 256 million will be used to renovate the 3 km road connecting Kerkafalva and Nagyrákos in Zala county. 47.2 km road may be renovated in the Western Transdanubia region from the funds allocated under the New Széchenyi Plan.
Hungary's Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics met Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, in Budapest on Wednesday to discuss changes proposed by the government to several laws recently criticised by the Council of Europe.
The amendment of the Consumer Protection Act, which was endorsed by the government at its session earlier today, is to be enacted by parliament. The modifications were incorporated in the bill after all requirements of consumers had been taken into consideration. As a result, among others, in the future complaint management will be faster and the sphere of competence for conciliation committees will be broader.
German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere paid a visit to the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in the area of responsibility of the International Security Assistance Force Regional Command-North (ISAF RC-N) in Afghanistan, accompanied by Maj.-Gen. Erich Pfeffer, the newly appointed commander of RC-N. There are Hungarian, Swedish, Turkish and Norwegian PRTs operating around the nine provinces in the AOR of the Germany-led ISAF RC-N.
"The Government is treating agriculture as an important spring-board", stressed András Giró-Szász at the press conference on Wednesday at which he and Minister for Rural Development Sándor Fazekas jointly announced that the Government had passed the proposal regarding the National Rural Strategy.