Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is scheduled to pay an official visit to Germany in October, and meet Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks on bilateral ties of strategic importance as well as European issues, Péter Szijjártó, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations told Hungarian News Agency MTI today.

State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó had talks in Berlin in preparation for the prime ministerial visit and met Christoph Heusgen, Merkel's advisor on foreign affairs and security policy, Cornelia Pieper, minister of state at the German foreign ministry, state secretary for economic affairs Peter Hintze, and Andreas Schockenhoff, deputy leader of the CDU/CSU party alliance.

Concerning his negotiations, Szijjártó said that Hungary supported German endeavours to strengthen the EU and its currency, and noted that Hungary had succeeded in reducing its deficit to below 3 percent and was reducing its national debt on a continuous basis.

During the talks, all parties agreed that once the crisis is over, cooperation between Germany and Central Europe will be crucial for further economic growth, Szijjártó said. He added that the Hungarian government wanted to promote that cooperation through making strategic agreements with large German companies in the country, as well as through eliminating some of the red tape and making the tax system less complicated.

On another subject, Szijjártó said that Hungary supported Germany's efforts to make the EU's cohesion funds more transparent and efficient, but said that those efforts must not involve funding cuts.

(Prime Minister's Office)