Germany's E.ON may not want to sell Hungarian assets to state - Navracsics

Navracsics said households have such massive utility arrears that already means “social risks" therefore the cabinet needs to see to it that rising energy prices do not burden the population if possible.

Taking over E.ON is treated as a national strategy issue, he added. The world showed, he said, that owning energy companies is after all a security issue and it is not by chance that the majority of European countries have kept these firms in state hands.

Navracsics noted that as in all negotiations it is also “on the cards" that E.ON’s German owners will not sell their interests to the Hungarian state.

The Justice Minister also emphasised that before the transaction they will need to assess the European community’s legal environment to see whether nationalising the company would not collide with competition rules. He added that the European Commission will presumably be suspicious in this case, but it is no problem because as the “guardian of treaties" that is its job.

Navracsics reiterated his view that voter registration needs to be easily accessible for everyone in the country so that people can freely practice their right to vote. He said pre-registration in itself can affect turnout in the next elections, but the effect is not of key importance. Previous experience show that if the voters detect a political sentiment, in which they feel the need to vote in any case then they will also go and register for the vote.

Navracsics noted that three “not negligible" groups will definitely need to register anyhow: (i) people with dual citizenship without place of residence in Hungary who are therefore not included in the electoral roll, (ii) citizens who decide on the parliamentary representation of ethnic groups and (iii) qualified voters who will be abroad on the election day.

In an analysis published earlier this year, political consultancy and research institute Political Capital said “nothing justifies" the introduction of the prior registration as a safeguard for a clean election “as Hungary’s population registry system has never been questioned in past elections."

“For in Hungary a popular tendency of alienation from politics and voter apathy are major problems, and in this environment pre-registration, would only increase the number of passive citizens instead of increasing participation," it added.

http://www.riskandforecast.com/post/hungary/party -funding-and-prior-registration-ahead-of-the-elect ions_757.html