The Hungarian conference on demographics attracted a host of foreign visitors, which indicates that there is heightened interest in the Hungarian family support model.

State Secretary for Family and Youth Affairs Katalin Novák declared with relation to the 3rd Budapest Demographics Summit that the goal of the event was to discuss the greatest challenge of the age: demographics.

“This is about who we will be, how many of us there will be, and how we will be living here in Europe”, she pointed out.

Ms. Novák emphasised that the Government is approaching the issue through families, and this, the family, was also the common point of reference of the speakers who arrived at the Summit from all over the world, from twenty countries.

According to the State Secretary, assisting families is not the private affair of a single government, and the government isn’t necessarily the primary actor in these efforts.

Although the government is shouldering a significant role in assuring the family support system, Churches and family organisations are important “allies”, and actors from public life, the media, the arts and scientific life are also playing a significant role.

According to Ms. Novák, another common point of reference of both Hungarian and foreign speakers was the migration that is currently taking place, and which is affecting everybody. The participants came to the joint conclusion that: “The demographic problems affecting Western Europe cannot be solved by allowing this migration to occur in an uncontrolled manner”.

(Ministry of Human Capacities/MTI)