The Parliamentary State Secretary at the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister described the agreement concluding the EU summit as a major breakthrough as, he said, we have managed to defend our national pride and a significant amount of additional funds has been secured for the country.

On the Wednesday morning programme of the public service television news channel M1, Csaba Dömötör said the agreement is a breakthrough also because at the beginning of the negotiations the positions of the parties were very far from each other, and several country groups conducted talks for four days.

He said there were countries which wanted to contribute not more, but in actual fact less than before.

The Southern countries are in great trouble, and they clearly need help. At the same time, the Eastern European countries were also present at the negotiating table. So far, these countries have pursued disciplined economic policies and their budgets “have not gone through the roof”; yet, they were faced with the threat of receiving less funding pro rata, he added.

The State Secretary highlighted that what matters most is that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán managed to secure EUR 3 billion more, the equivalent of some one thousand billion forints in development funds for the country compared with the original plans.

The reporter on the programme also mentioned that, according to Tuesday data, as many as 725,000 persons have already completed the national consultation questionnaire. In his reply, Mr Dömötör said the coronavirus had affected everyone one way or another, and this could be the reason for the popularity of the consultation.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)