It is in Hungary’s best interest that the United Kingdom should leave the European Union with an agreement. At the same time, we must also prepare for a hard Brexit scenario, Finance Minister Mihály Varga stressed at the extended meeting of Eurozone finance ministers (Eurogroup) held in Helsinki. The Minister highlighted that the government has already prepared all local legislative amendments and policy measures that might be necessary in consequence of Brexit.

Brexit will be the main topic of the meeting of heads of state and government to be held on 17-18 October, which will focus – in light of the latest internal political developments in Britain – on yet another extension, or preparations for a hard exit, Mr Varga informed the press. He observed that before the EU summit, on the EU’s part, there is no scope for the renegotiation of the exit agreement.

As part of the preparations for a hard Brexit, in 2018-2019 19 legislative acts have been adopted in Brussels in total, a common feature of which is that they are transitional and merely serve the unilateral containment of the most important negative impacts, the Minister pointed out. He added that the results we have achieved in recent years mean that the Hungarian economy is also much more resilient to changes in external circumstances, and therefore Britain’s possible hard departure from the EU cannot cause a significant setback.

At the meeting, the attending ministers continued the debate on the outstanding issues of the Eurozone budget, Mr Varga said, mentioning that the issue of the distribution of funds continues to divide Member States. Hungary insists that, upon the development of the relevant methodology, in addition to population data, each country’s relative state of advancement must also be taken into consideration, the Hungarian Minister underlined, highlighting that GDP data per capita must also be included in the calculations in the interest of the enforcement of proportionate and just funding principles.

(Ministry of Finance)