Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that by 2018 three developments will be implemented in Sopron: construction of the M85 four-lane expressway, the restoration of the Baroque town centre and development of the World Heritage site around Lake Fertő.
At a press conference held in Sopron, the Prime Minister said that the development of provincial towns and cities is key to rural development, which is why the Government has established the Modern Cities programme; the first cooperation agreement to be concluded within this is with Sopron.
Mr. Orbán said that he will visit all 23 county-level municipalities in the coming period and will conclude agreements with council leaders on future cooperation, which will contribute to the development of provincial towns and cities.
The Prime Minister explained that construction costs on the M85 expressway will exceed HUF 100 billion, which cannot be supported by the EU in the current cycle, and it will therefore be built with taxpayers’ money; he said that the expressway “must be built” by 2018, as the aim is to link all county-level municipalities to the highway network and to link them to Hungary’s borders.
Concerning the restoration of the Baroque city centre, Mr. Orbán said that the city council will launch a consultation process on the renovation of church-owned, private and public buildings, in order to ensure that local people feel that they have a say in the spending of public money.
Talking about the development of the World Heritage site around Lake Fertő, the Prime Minister said that the aim is to achieve a situation in which “when crossing from Austria into Hungary, there is no decline in quality.” He asked the development’s designers to present a concept which ensures that there are no qualitative differences between the Austrian and Hungarian sides.
Mr. Orbán added that after World War II this city close to the border was “excluded from development”, and although over the last twenty years it has developed significantly, “there is still work to be done.”
The parties have also discussed the establishment of an industrial park, in relation to which the Prime Minister said that “tourism is nice and we need it,” but one cannot make a living from it alone.
Mr. Orbán also recalled that in 2010 the most important task for Hungary was to avoid a meltdown. The second task was to “stand on our own two feet”, and now the time has come in which “we can make steps forward.”
The Prime Minister requested all municipality leaders to act as mentors to villages in Transcarpathia, as Ukraine is currently “on the brink”, and Hungarians living there must be helped. He said that the relationships to these settlements must be more than simply twinning relationships.
Mayor of Sopron Tamás Fodor (Fidesz-KDNP) said that the Government had earlier guaranteed the city a stable economy by taking over its debt, and now it will guarantee long-term development. He expressed his gratitude for being the first municipality mayor to sign such an agreement with the Prime Minister.
Mr. Fodor also said that the M85 expressway will be an engine for development of tourism and the local economy. The restoration of the Baroque city centre is necessary, because Sopron will thus be able to present a full picture of its history. With the help of the Lake Fertő development almost all water sports will be available in the region, which will also improve its tourism potential.
At the press conference the topic of the Quaestor case was also discussed. When asked whether he thought it strange that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had taken its money out of the firm just before it went bankrupt, Mr. Orbán said that it was he who had ordered ministries to take their money out from brokerage firms after the Buda-Cash scandal, when the Government had been informed that a domino effect might occur. He also added that the money of many local governments and even that of one of the voluntary insurance funds for Ministry of Defence employees stayed at the company.
The government decree issued at the cabinet meeting ordered ministries to review their financial relations and to immediately take out all resources “parked” at brokerage firms, because in times like these “where there is a threat of a domino effect […] not even a single forint must be kept” at brokerage firms. Reacting to the accusations circulating in the media and voiced by the opposition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has published a number of statements in which it repeatedly states that neither the Ministry nor its background institutions have received any information illegally, and they have not concealed any information either.
(Prime Minister's Office)
