“According to Hungary’s position, the EU recovery package aimed at rebooting the economy must be equitable, flexible, and free from politics. For this reason, it is incomprehensible that disproportions may be noticed in the case of certain countries with relation to the mitigation of damages and the drawing up of the principle for funding”, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga emphasised today at a videoconference meeting of EU finance ministers.

“Germany took over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union on 1 July”, Mr. Varga pointed out. “Hungary welcomes the fact that the German Presidency has placed the recovery plan at the focus of its program.  Preserving jobs and promoting investment play a key role in mitigating economic damage and rebooting the economy. In addition to the individual measures introduced by member states, it is important that the EU recovery program should contribute to preserving investment capacity and financing recovery requirements in an equitable manner with relation to Central European countries that were performing well and converging successfully prior to the crisis”, the Minister emphasised.

“The Commission’s prognosis for summer 2020 was presented at the meeting, which confirms that Europe is experiencing the greatest economic decline since the Second World War. Given the current economic conditions, all forecasts must be treated with a certain level of uncertainty. The Commission is somewhat less confident than in its spring report, forecasting an 8.7 percent downturn within the eurozone and an 8.3 percent downturn in the EU as a whole for this year. In contrast, the Commission has not changed its prognosis with relation to Hungary”, the Minister explained.

“The finance ministers were briefed on the progress made with relation to the implementation of the crisis management measures introduced by the European Union to date. The EU credit facility aimed at preserving jobs is expected to become available from the end of July. This requires the authorisation of every EU member state. Hungary has already undertaken the guarantee that enables the functioning of the credit line”, he continued.

The Minister drew attention to the fact that particular consideration must be paid to supporting countries that are not members of the eurozone during the implementation of crisis management measures. “In view of the economically symmetrical nature of the crisis, it would be justified to established a symmetrical safety net system similar to the European Stability Mechanism available to eurozone member states, as was already unanimously declared by EU finance ministers in early April, but despite this, the Commission has not made any progress within this area so far”, Mr. Varga stated.

(MTI/Ministry of Finance)