Europe cannot be competitive unless the status of work is restored, State Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at the Krynica International Economic Forum in Poland on Wednesday.
Europe can only regain its former competitiveness if it abandons its policies of austerity measures and indebtedness and builds work-based societies,, State Secretary Szijjártó said, adding that Europe should also ensure greater freedom for national decisions on economic policy, accelerate the process of enlargement and forge closer ties with the world’s emerging regions.
The State Secretary said “Hungary's example has proven that a country can only be successful by implementing a bold and innovative economic policy aimed at achieving a work-based society in which economic burdens are more fairly distributed.”
Mr. Szijjártó pointed out that it is no longer sustainable that while the population of the European Union accounts for 7 percent of the world's population and its share of the global GDP is 18.6 percent, it distributes 50 percent of global welfare expenditure. He also noted that EU Member States have kept increasing their aggregated debt at a rate of EUR 1 billion a day, a tendency that needs to be stopped. Hungary has proven that it is possible to restore the growth of the economy without abandoning fiscal discipline. “The Hungarian economy enjoyed Europe’s fastest rate of economic growth during the first quarter of this year, with investments increasing by 22 percent and the rate of employment hitting a 20-year record high, while we kept our budget deficit under 3%”, he added.
State Secretary Szijjártó highlighted Central Europe's growing economic weight within the EU, adding that the recent election of Donald Tusk as President of the European Council will certainly increase the region's political importance.
In a joint presentation with Serbian ex-President Boris Tadic, Mr. Szijjártó pointed out that since the damage to the Hungarian economy caused by European and Russian economic sanctions amounts to HUF 70 million (€ 223,000) a day, Hungary is pushing for a quick political resolution to the crisis through negotiations.
State Secretary Szijjártó also held bilateral negotiations with Poland's economy minister Janusz Piechociński. In 2013, trade between Hungary and Poland achieved a 10-year record high, approaching €7bn, and increased by a further 12 percent during the first half of this year. The negotiating partners agreed that the Visegrad countries had successfully extended their cooperation to the economy. The Hungarian Government proposed that the Hungarian and Polish Eximbanks should sign a 300 million euro credit line agreement to promote further development.
Mr Szijjártó noted the importance of building a North-South gas pipeline through Central Europe. “We cannot talk about real energy security in Central Europe unless a gas pipeline connection is established between the Baltic and Adriatic Seas” the State Secretary pointed out, adding that Hungary insists that all EU Member States are free to determine their energy policies, while nuclear energy should not be discriminated against in EU legislation.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
