Minister of Defence Csaba Hende received journalists from Ukraine on 5 May 2011. The main topics discussed during the meeting were international military engagement, Hungarian-Ukrainian bilateral military cooperation and the role of the Hungarian Army in patriotic education. The guests were accompanied by Mr Endre Szalipszki, the Hungarian Consul to Ungvár.
At the invitation of General Mieczysław Cieniuch, General Tibor Benkő, Chief of Defence Staff of the Hungarian Defence Forces paid an official visit to Warsaw at the end of April. During the talks military tasks of the Hungarian EU Presidency, peacekeeping operations and the military career model have been reviewed.
The EU ATHENA Special Committee held its informal meeting in Hungary on 4-6 May, 2011. The EU ATHENA Special Committee is a financial working body dealing with financial questions of the EU’s military crisis management missions.
The informal meeting of the energy ministers of the European Union’s Member States was hosted by Minister for National Development, also in charge of energy, Tamás Fellegi on 2-3 May 2011. In summary of the experiences of the meeting, the minister said: the contributions and remarks revealed that the three pillars of the European Union’s energy strategy – namely, security of supply, competitiveness and sustainability – must be taken into consideration with equal significance during the finalisation of the Energy Strategy.
An enlarged meeting of ministers of justice from the Visegrád Group’s member countries and Croatia is taking place in Veszprém between 5 and 7 May.
The 2nd Ludovika Festival will be held in Orczy Park, Budapest between May 13 and May 15 2011.
‘It is clear that our government programme cannot be implemented without making sacrifices, and without everyday struggle, or even extraordinarily heroic efforts,’ said László Szászfalvi, Minister of State for Church, Civil Society and Nationality Affairs, on Tuesday, when he addressed the conference ‘Heroes, Martyrs and Sacrifice from the 20th Century Reformed Church in Hungary’ at the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary.
On 2 May, the Ministry of Defence organized a Presidency conference on the security of virtual space. Participants of the meeting in Budapest, reviewed the international community’s potential responses to the transformation of cyberspace, into a theatre of war. The conference was opened by Minister of Defence, Csaba Hende.
The Chiefs of Defence of the 27 European Member States met on 3 May 2011 in Brussels, under the chairmanship of General Håkan Syrén, to discuss the state of play regarding the military operations conducted by the European Union as well as the main activities and initiatives of the Union for improving European military capabilities.
‘It’s as if I’ve jumped ahead in time,’ said Anna Nagy, Government Spokesperson in Győr, after having tried several cars at the 6th Race for Alternative-powered Vehicles.