Economy
Hungary says not to EU recommendation for fiscal adjustment
No austerity
There is no need for fiscal austerity because the budget situation is stable, Lázár responded to the European Commission’s recent recommendation for fiscal adjustment. He noted that none of the EC’s projections came true in the last six years, he added. The minister thinks it is out of the question that if Hungary does not carry out the suggested adjustments the EC will reopen the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) against Hungary next year. In its country-specific recommendations the EU executive recommended 0.3% of GDP adjustment for Hungary for 2016 and 0.6% for 2017.We are not that corrupt
The Fidesz party needs to be prepared that it will be attacked ever stronger in the next two years on allegations of corruption and the opinion of the U.S. Ambassador and the European Commission fits into this pattern. We are ready to consider the Commission’s initiatives, as we do not sweep civilian initiatives off the table, either, Lázár said.He added that Hungary is not more corrupt than other countries in the region, but it is undisputable that there are cases the cabinet needs to manage and it needs to take additional steps to combat corruption.
Plans to restrict multinationals
Agricultural production is a key segment of GDP and it has failed to grow recently therefore the cabinet put looked closely into this matter. First of all, the government as one of the largest consumers can help via mass catering, for instance, therefore this goal may gain focus when it comes to reforming mass catering. Lázár said we’re talking about the catering to one million people a day so this is big.We will not be able to help unless the Hungarian processing industry is coupled with a predominant Hungarian retail trade. The next question is how this can be assisted and now we are trying to find out what legitimate solutions exist in the EU. There are many examples that the participation of multinationals is restricted for consumer protection reasons. The government is now examining how those can be supported that use Hungarian base materials, the minister added.
