On Monday 18 November, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) discussed the economic situation in the European Union and current legislative dossiers with the Hungarian Finance Minister, Mihály Varga.
Mr Varga affirmed his desire to focus efforts on the key priorities of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council, which include strengthening economic competitiveness, managing demographic challenges and the future of cohesion policy. He pointed out that this Presidency coincided with the start of a new legislative cycle, paving the way for closer collaboration with MEPs.
Competitiveness. On the subject of ‘competitiveness’, Mr Varga stressed the importance of the ‘Budapest Declaration’ recently adopted by the 27 heads of state or government (see EUROPE 13521/2), as his country’s contribution to a debate that will gain momentum during the legislative term that is about to begin.
He highlighted certain examples of legislative progress, in particular the provisional agreement on the ‘VAT in the digital age’ (ViDA) legislative package (see EUROPE 13518/13), as well as the imminent start of inter-institutional negotiations with the Parliament (‘trilogue’) on the following legislative texts: - the regulation on benchmarks; - retail financial services; - the ‘CMDI’ framework for bank crisis management (Tuesday 17 December, according to our information).
During the discussion, some MEPs pointed the finger at Budapest’s controversial positions on Russian military aggression in Ukraine and alleged corruption problems in Hungary.
“How can we be competitive if some states do not respect the rule of law”, asked Jussi Saramo (The Left, Finnish).
“The Hungarian Presidency is striving to promote the development of competitiveness in Europe. We invited Mr Draghi to Budapest, where he presented his report defining the priority actions needed”, replied Mr Varga, mentioning as key priorities the reduction of energy prices and the reduction of administrative burdens for businesses.
“As for corruption, objective data shows that the situation in Hungary is neither better nor worse than the European average”, he added, stressing that his country had put in place adequate measures to combat this type of crime.
Stability Pact. On the implementation of the EU’s budgetary rules, the Hungarian Minister has promised to “do everything possible” to ensure that the Council is able to adopt recommendations on consolidation paths for the eight Member States subject to an excessive deficit procedure, including Hungary, on Tuesday 10 December (see EUROPE 13462/1).
The European Commission will present its draft recommendations on Tuesday 26 November in Strasbourg. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit & Mathieu Bion)