Brussels, 03/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission and the International Monetary Fund have not yet set a date for the formal talks due to begin this month with the Hungarian government over financial aid of between €15 billion and €20 billion. On Tuesday 3 January, a spokesperson said the question was whether the formal talks would start this month and that at the moment the IMF and the Commission had not yet decided whether to return to Budapest for talks this month. In December 2011, the two international bodies decided to interrupt a fact-finding mission in Budapest because of authoritarian moves by the Hungarian government (see related article). At the end of last month, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, wrote to the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, asking him to withdraw immediately his reform plans that would jeopardise the independence of the country's central bank (see EUROPE 10520). The changes to how the Hungarian Central Bank is run were introduced along with other changes to the constitution in December and the Commission is currently studying the new legislation to see whether it is compatible with European law. (MB/transl.fl)