On Monday Parliament approved Hungary’s membership of the new EU Fiscal Compact, by adopting a proposal from Minister of Foreign Affairs János Martonyi. The content of the Compact was agreed by EU heads of state and government, and the treaty related to it will be signed by leaders of participating Member States at a session of the European Council on 1-2 March. The Compact will come into force on 1 January 2013.
On 20 February Foreign Minister János Martonyi consulted with the delegation of the Venice Commission. In their conversation the parties discussed the legislative intent and background behind the cardinal laws regulating churches and courts, and exchanged views on the legal and professional concerns as well as on the critical comments concerning these laws.
At the meeting of its Assembly on 31 January 2012, the African Union elected Boni Yayi, President of the Republic of Benin as its new Chairperson.
"The government will continue to help the townships affected by the red sludge disaster even now that remediation has been completed" – said Minister for Rural Development Sándor Fazekas in Devecser at the press conference following the tour of the restored areas.
Tamás Iván Kovács Deputy State Secretary for European Union and International Affairs outlined Hungary’s position in issues related to European energy infrastructure development and energy efficiency improvement at the European Union’s Transport, Telecommunication and Energy Council meeting held on 14 February, 2012 in Brussels.
The Minister of Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will visit Hungary in the near future – this was one of the agreements concluded between Endre Kardeván and Dr. Fahd Bin Abdulrahman Balghunaimmal during their meeting in Riyadh. At another important meeting, the State Secretary for Food Chain Control Supervision of the Ministry of Rural Development discussed what criteria Hungarian business must meet in order to export their food products to Saudi Arabia.
The Hungarian Government submitted to the European Commission today, within the requested deadline, its responses in the three infringement procedures initiated in January (the independence of the Hungarian National Bank and of the National Data Protection Authority and the mandatory retirement age for judges) and also to the two additional questions raised by the European Commission (concerning the functioning of the judiciary and the situation of the media).
Hungary's Institute of Public Administration has published a volume of commentaries by legal experts to Hungary's new constitution in English, state secretary for justice Bence Retvari said at the book's presentation at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on Friday.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, the Municipality of Budapest and the organisers of the movement One Million for the Freedom of Press in Hungary have come to an agreement on the use of public spaces for events taking place on 15 March, one of the most important national holidays in Hungary.
Agriculture played a decisive role in a higher than expected 1.4% rise in the Hungarian GDP in the last quarter of 2011. The output of the Hungarian economy increased by 1.7% in 2011, more than both the European Union average of 1.6% and the eurozone average of 1.5%.