Jonathan Hill, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, and Hungary’s Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga held cordial discussions in Brussels, focusing on three topics: the soon-to-be-published EU country report, the MoU concluded with EBRD and Erste Bank as well as the Green Paper on building a capital markets union.
With regard to the country report on Hungary, the Minister indicated that the Government questions the conclusions the study draws as these do not take economic achievements reached thus far into consideration. Economic data actually confirm the results of the country’s efforts and contradict statements the EU has repeatedly made.
Among these statistics the following are especially noteworthy: the 3.6 percent economic growth figure (through which Hungary’s GDP reached the pre-crisis level at the end of 2014), a record-high employment level and investment growth, steadily increasing foreign trade volume, as well as domestic consumption and industrial output growth. Mihály Varga stated that Hungary “has been doing better than the Commission acknowledges it in the report”.
At the meeting, Mihály Varga briefed the Commissioner about details of the MoU concluded with the EBRD. He informed him in detail about Hungary’s expectations regarding the agreement and the rationale of signing the document. One of the main reasons was to further bolster Hungary’s economic growth through bank lending. As Mihály Varga emphasised, authors of the current country report have unfortunately failed to take this effort into account. Speaking of the agreement, the Minister stated that the report should factor in the positive effects of the agreement, especially as these would invalidate the Commission’s repeated criticisms on overloading the Hungarian financial sector.
The last topic on the agenda was the discussion of the capital markets union of the EU. The so-called Green Paper provides an overview of measures and options which are to address the capital deficit issues of, for example, SMEs through non-bank lending. “We consider the initiative a good one, but we can only support it in case it takes individual national characteristics into consideration and smaller countries will not suffer any disadvantage vis-à-vis larger countries,” Mihály Varga said.
(Ministry for National Economy)
