Brussels, 23/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Hungarian government is anticipating the opening of talks with the EU on the loan it wishes to request from it and the IMF by the end of the month of April, according to the news agency Reuters, quoting the head of Hungarian diplomacy. In an interview with the television channel HirTV on 22 April, Janos Martonyi indicated that the meeting to be held in Brussels this Tuesday 24 April between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, would be “very important” and “we anticipate (…) that the decision on opening talks with the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund will be made by the end of April”, he said.
Since January, Hungary has been on the receiving end of a series of procedures brought against it by the European Commission, with Budapest having been sent two reasoned opinions on its laws on the retirement age of judges and the data protection authority. The new rules on the Hungarian central bank have also been challenged by the European Commission, which has made the opening of talks on future financial assistance for the country conditional upon a series of amendments.
On 18 April, the Hungarian government complied with its obligations by putting a number of amendments to its parliament. Under these modifications, the representative of the government will no longer attend the sessions of the Monetary Council of the central bank, and this council will no longer be obliged to send the government the agenda of its meetings, according to a press release by the Ministry for the Economy. A change to the constitution was also proposed, to rule out the possibility of a merger between the central bank (MNB) and the body which supervises the financial institutions, PSZAF. These modifications have also been submitted to the Commission, the Ministry stated on Wednesday 18 April. For its part, the Commission has also stated that the college of commissioners would take position on the “Hungarian case” by early May. (SP/transl.fl)