Budapest, 07/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council and the European Commission share the view that economic and financial matters should be at the top of the European agenda for the next six months even though, for now, polemic surrounding the Hungarian media law continues to throw a shadow on the new Presidency. Bringing the EU out of economic crisis, laying the bases for sustainable growth and for job creation in Europe, strengthening economic governance and stabilising the eurozone are very clearly top priorities of the Hungarian Presidency, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after the meeting between his government and the European college of commissioners on 7 January, in Budapest. If, over the next six months, the 27 member states manage to amend the Treaty of Lisbon to allow the creation of a permanent eurozone stabilisation mechanism, adopt six Commission legislative proposals on strengthening economic governance and managing the first “European semester” on the coordination of economic and budgetary policies, then the EU and the euro “will be in better shape than today”, Orban said speaking at the joint press conference with José Manuel Barroso.
Economic governance. The president of the Commission said he supported the Hungarian Presidency's programme one hundred percent as “financial stability, economic growth and job creation are the main concerns of citizens”. “It is not only the so-called federalists who want to see more economic governance and coordination of economic policies. It's the markets who are demanding more coordination at European level”, Barroso said.
The president of the Commission trusts that these six legislative proposals on governance will be adopted by Council and Parliament before the end of the Hungarian Presidency. Barroso announced that the Commission would next week (12 January) launch the process for the first European semester by presenting an annual growth survey. It will focus on “key measures” to be taken in member states in three key areas: - fiscal consolidation, structural reforms, and growth-enhancing measures.
Energy. Progressing towards the creation of an internal energy market will be a top priority of the Hungarian Presidency, Orban said. The European Council of 4 February (entirely devoted to energy and innovation) must state the EU's resolve to liberalise energy markets and create energy connections, he added. Preparations for the European Council are not the responsibility of Hungary (Ed: but of Herman Van Rompuy). However, “what Hungary can add to this energy summit is that, before the summit, there will be an official intergovernmental agreement between Hungary and Slovakia on the interconnection of Hungarian and Slovakian networks in the hope that Poland will act in a similar fashion with the Slovakian government. Therefore, we can say that contracts and agreements will be in place for the first North-South energy network extending from the Baltic Sea down to the Adriatic through Croatia”, the prime minister said.
Enlargement, Schengen, Rome. Viktor Orban also reiterated that he was keen on concluding membership talks with Croatia, as well as Bulgaria and Romania's accession to the Schengen Area. He hopes the European Council in June will adopt the European strategy on the Roma.
Media law. Obviously aware of the media ruckus over Hungary's media laws and concerned about preventing this controversy from being detrimental to his term of European presidency, Orban reiterated, on Friday, his resolve to review certain provisions of the law if the Commission's legal examination of the law were to conclude that it was counter to Community law or to the EU's values and principles. He no longer insisted, as he had done the day before (see yesterday's EUROPE), on the fact that Budapest will not accept changes unless the other member states, which have identical provisions in their media laws, bring in the same changes. “We shall do our best not to have this issue overshadow the presidency”, Orban said, albeit confident that the Hungarian law is perfectly in line with the EU's values, directives and principles. The Hungarian government is also ready to review the law if, during its application, real problems of press freedom were to appear. José Manuel Barroso told the press he was delighted to have “received assurances from the prime minister that the law is drawn up and is implemented in full respect of European values, media freedom and relevant EU legislation”. He went on to add: “He (Ed: Orban) also made clear that adjustments would be made should the Commission, after a legal assessment, find that this is not the case for all the aspects of the law”. Legal assessment will not begin until the law has been officially notified to the Commission - which was not the case on Friday. In the meantime, Barroso remains “fully confident” in Hungarian rule of law and democracy. “There is no doubt about this”, he said. (H.B./transl.jl)