“The restrictions concerning the state funding of investment projects should be lifted as soon as possible within the European Union, in view of the fact that funding enterprises would be extremely important in the interests of protecting jobs given the difficult economic situation caused by the coronavirus epidemic”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó emphasised on Tuesday in Vienna prior to a meeting with his Austrian, Czech, Slovakian and Slovenian counterparts.

In a statement to public media, Mr. Szijjártó said the Hungarian government also agrees with the fresh Austrian proposal according to which the European Commission must enable member states to finance investment projects within their territory from their own budgets without restriction.
“We regard the maintaining of the restrictions on state funding to be absolutely unjustified and incorrect in the current period”, he stated, adding that this is at odds with the interests of the whole community.

The Minister pointed out that jobs can only be saved, and new workplaces created, if investment projects are realised, and this requires support from the state. “Unfortunately, the European Union institutions are just as slow now as they were prior to the global pandemic; we have been in negotiation with Brussels on this issue for over six weeks, but are yet to receive a reply or authorisation”, he stated.

Mr. Szijjártó highlighted that Central Europe has successfully ended the first phase of its protection against the epidemic, partly thanks to the close cooperation between the region’s countries. He underlined that we must now focus on economic protection, the goal being for cooperation within this field to be at least as tight and successful. “This is important in view of the fact that the neighbouring states are Hungary’s highly important trade partners”, he added.

“The target of the Central Europeans can be nothing less than to ensure that following the global pandemic our economies and enterprises are stronger than they were prior to the global pandemic”, he declared.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)