Hungary is determined to take action against any effort by the Commission to narrow the spheres of competence of member states with all the tools at its disposal, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said in Warsaw, at the sidelines of a meeting of the labour and social affairs ministers of the Visegrad Four. The standpoint of the V4 continues to be to support the fight against the misuse of regulations and measures aimed at their enforcement, but these countries refuse to accept the planned amendment of the posting directive and deny unfounded accusations of “social dumping”.

Hungary – along with the other countries from the V4 – rejects the use of the term “social dumping” and the claim that it enables countries with traditionally low wages to enjoy unlawful gains and benefit from unfair competition.  With regard to the planned changes on “posting”, i.e. the posting of employees abroad, the Minister said that the draft amendment was unacceptable for Hungary, as it would limit the freedom of providing services, and therefore Hungarian enterprises providing cross-border services would be pushed out of the common market, but this step would also reduce the competitiveness of the entire EU.

In his presentation, the Minister pointed out that Hungary would not renounce the spheres of competence it already has, and which are threatened to be limited or taken away.  For Hungary, the defence of employee rights is a key priority, he added. On the common market, enterprises of the V4 provide competitive and high-quality services tailored to market demands, Mihály Varga stressed.

Hungary has seen major economic, competitiveness and employment results since 2010 which confirm that the country is heading in the right direction.  Besides the improvement of economic indicators, the unemployment rate has also improved to 4.4 percent, to the lowest level in Europe. The country has also been effective in combating poverty.

(Ministry for National Economy)