The next Informal Meeting of EU Ministers of Defence will be held on 24 and 25 February in Budapest and Gödöllő. It will be hosted by Csaba Hende, the working dinner and sessions will be chaired by Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The issue of improper dealing has been raised in one case in Heves county when state owned land was rented by a foreign company.
At present one million jobs and, consequently, places of work are missing on the Hungarian labour market. That is why the government committed itself to form a partnership with the enterprises to create them in ten years’ time. The creation of one million jobs is necessary so that our extremely low rate of employment, in comparison with the European Union, should belong to the premier league of the EU.
The size of the Hungarian national budget relative to the size of our economy is almost 6 percent bigger than that of the countries with economies at a similar stage of development or that of the average of the other Visegrád group members. Almost half of the difference is the result of the significantly higher Hungarian interest liabilities due to our bigger public debt, but our primary expenditures are also higher than those of our competitors in the region. The current structure of expenditures in the national budget is not pro-growth: the proportion of expenditures on investments is low, the proportion of running expenditures is high – especially, within this, the amount spent on social benefits.
The Minister of Public Administration and Justice spoke about the process of institutional restructuring in public administration and a change in perspective on the workforce at a staff forum in the Veszprém County Government Office. Dr. Tibor Navracsics also said that allegations of politically-inspired mass dismissals are not true.
Mr. József Ángyán is at the world’s largest Bio Agricultural Fair held in Nürnberg. The most important value of ecological farming is to produce healthy and safe food products, free of additives.
Retired lieutenant colonel István Papp has been presented with the honourable award „For the Homeland” by the Minister of Defence. At the event held at the MoD on 16 February Csaba Hende praised the courage of the UN employee.
In the presence of Ambassadors accredited from the region to Hungary, János Hóvári opened the exhibition „FOURTEEN CENTURIES OF COINS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD” in the Helikon Castle Museum in Keszthely.
Zoltán Kovács, Minister of State for Communication at the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, said at a ministry press conference that specialists from the European Commission and the Hungarian government have reached an agreement today in connection with the amendments to the Hungarian media legislation proposed in response to questions raised last December by the Vice-president of the European Commission.
Hungary has been committed to a strict budget policy. In accordance with the convergence programme, the government will gradually reduce budget deficit from 3.8% as of GDP in 2010 to 2.9% in 2011. Parallel to this, they will contribute to jumpstarting an economic growth with measures aimed at job creation. As a result, the level of public debt will fall from 80% as of GDP in 2010 to 70% by 2014.