Economy
Hungary PM to meet EC President Barroso next Tuesday
“Arrangements have been made for a meeting between President Barroso and Prime Minister Orbán on Tuesday," EC spokesman Alejandro Ulzurrun de Asanza y Munoz told the usual daily press conference today.
“The purpose of this meeting is to have a formal exchange of views on issues which are currently open between Hungary and the EC. At this stage I have no further details on the content of this meeting," he added.
The meeting should start at 11:30 CET on Tuesday.
There is still no official date as to when the College (European Commissioners) will publish their opinion on the responses Budapest sent on EU concerns expressed in the infringement proceedings.
Local business daily Világgazdaság reported today that next week the EU executive will address the infringement proceedings it launched against Hungary and is expected to bring an important decision in this matter. The spokesman could not confirm this today.Orbán is to hold a presentation in Brussels on Monday and he was expected to meet Barroso then.According to leaked information, they will discuss not only the infringement proceedings but also Hungary’s Convergence Programme and the latest tax ideas of the cabinet that should be included, such as the financial transaction tax and apparently the telephone/Internet tax as well.
Neither the Economy Ministry, nor Hungary’s telecom companies are willing to comment on a report by local news portal origo.hu about the new levy that would be slapped every telephone call (fixed-line or mobile) and Internet usage. While it is not known at this point what rate the tax will have and whether it will be based on data traffic or duration, the ministry expects HUF 40-50 bn revenues from it, origo said.
The ministry told local newswire MTI that it “does not comment speculation in the press", which is obviously not true; it has happened several times in the past. Magyar Telekom, Vodafone, Telenor and Invitel gave the same answer to inquiries.
“The purpose of this meeting is to have a formal exchange of views on issues which are currently open between Hungary and the EC. At this stage I have no further details on the content of this meeting," he added.
The meeting should start at 11:30 CET on Tuesday.
There is still no official date as to when the College (European Commissioners) will publish their opinion on the responses Budapest sent on EU concerns expressed in the infringement proceedings.
Local business daily Világgazdaság reported today that next week the EU executive will address the infringement proceedings it launched against Hungary and is expected to bring an important decision in this matter. The spokesman could not confirm this today.Orbán is to hold a presentation in Brussels on Monday and he was expected to meet Barroso then.According to leaked information, they will discuss not only the infringement proceedings but also Hungary’s Convergence Programme and the latest tax ideas of the cabinet that should be included, such as the financial transaction tax and apparently the telephone/Internet tax as well.
Neither the Economy Ministry, nor Hungary’s telecom companies are willing to comment on a report by local news portal origo.hu about the new levy that would be slapped every telephone call (fixed-line or mobile) and Internet usage. While it is not known at this point what rate the tax will have and whether it will be based on data traffic or duration, the ministry expects HUF 40-50 bn revenues from it, origo said.
The ministry told local newswire MTI that it “does not comment speculation in the press", which is obviously not true; it has happened several times in the past. Magyar Telekom, Vodafone, Telenor and Invitel gave the same answer to inquiries.
