Most recently, more than two weeks ago, on June 8, a Government Info was held, at which Gergely Gulyás spoke, among other things, about Viktor Orbán’s peace mission and the NATO summit. The government then decided that a defense contribution should be paid to all multinational companies that made extra profits. This time, the crude oil transport stopped by Ukraine was the main topic of the government meeting, which Gergely Gulyás described as blackmail. According to him, Hungary and Slovakia got into this situation because of their pro-peace position.
If the situation is not resolved, there may be a fuel shortage, but there is no need to panic, a solution must be found by September
– declared the minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office on Government Information.
Gergely Gulyás reminded him that Ukraine buys electricity and refined oil from Hungary, and we also help Ukrainian refugees, which is why the move is unacceptable, but the government will not retaliate, he asked the European Commission to mediate.
The minister responsible for EU affairs János Bóka said that with this step Ukraine violated the association agreement with the EU, in such a case the member states can initiate a consultation with the committee, which must start the negotiation within 3 days. If this does not lead to results, the case can be taken to an arbitration court. Later, in response to Gergely Gulyás’ question, he repeated that the current situation does not cause problems due to the high level of reserves, and that they are already looking for a solution.
At the same time, he considers Brussels’ delay in investigating the Hungarian and Slovak requests strange.
To the question of whether Kyiv could have discussed the move with Brussels in advance, Gergely Gulyás replied that he did not know about such a thing, but did not consider the suggestion illogical. According to him, the solution to the issue may be that Kiev considers its decision against two EU member states and that the country wants to join the EU sooner or later. Regarding the possible blocking of Ukraine’s accession process, János Bóka spoke more decisively than he said, Ukraine has undertaken to comply with certain rules, and if Kiev violates them, there may be consequences.
According to a Magyar Hírlap employee, after Lukoil, the Ukrainians may restrict the activities of other Russian oil suppliers, according to a newspaper report. Gergely Gulyás responded to the suggestion by saying that Hungary’s storage capacity is significant, and we are among the countries in the EU that have the most reserves in case of trouble. However, for the time being, the Friendship is working, but if Hungary does not receive crude oil, then we cannot deliver it to Ukraine either, he added.
When asked by Index, what percentage of the total amount used by Mol is delivered by Lukoil, Gergely Gulyás could not give an exact ratio, but put it at 50 percent. All of this was important because it was suggested that Mol could make up for the missing part from other framework contracts. According to Gulyás, however, it does not matter at what price the company would get them.
János Bóka said that Ukraine has an international obligation to allow the oil shipments that have just been stopped to pass through his country. Hungary should not worry about replacing crude oil, but should point out that Kiev is breaking its international commitments and thereby putting several EU states in an embarrassing situation.
A disgrace, intolerable, blood-curdling
Gergely Gulyás already said this about the decision of the European Court of Justice, after it condemned Hungary in the migration case. According to the head of the ministry, based on the justification of the judgment, we may encounter unprecedented antipathy towards Hungary, while our country is only protecting the Schengen border, without substantial EU support. In the case, János Bóka and Sándor Pintér, the Minister of the Interior, have been given a mandate for the negotiation, and they are striving for a quick agreement, if only because, according to Gergely Gulyás, if Brussels wants to force the opening of the borders, then hundreds of thousands of migrants could leave for Austria and Germany.
The same was emphasized by János Bóka in response to a question, according to whom the execution of the judgment is not in the interest of Hungary or the EU, and if it were to happen, then we should prepare for scenes similar to the one in 2015 – this was repeated several times on Kormányinfo. As stated,
if they do not allow us to defend Europe, then we will only defend Hungary.
Gergely Gulyás said that in connection with the court decision in the asylum case, we were indeed ordered to pay, but this will either be paid by the country, or it will be deducted from us (As is known, it is a fine of two hundred million euros and one million euros per day). The deadline for the payment order expires at the end of August , so until then we can even do enough for it. The minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office did not rule out the possibility that there will be fines. He emphasized several times that the payment of the fine is solved in such a way that the taxpayers do not feel it, but refusing to pay is not possible, because then it will be deducted.
EU debates intensifying
In connection with the fact that the Patriots for Europe faction did not get a leadership position in the European Parliament, it was said that they would take the case to court because of this. Gergely Gulyás commented on this by saying that in the EP there is a method of calculating which faction is entitled to which position, which he believes has been violated. According to Gulyás, this shows that the political culture is lacking in the EP, for example, it could never happen here that a position belonging to the opposition would not be voted for by the governing parties.
Regarding the criticisms accompanying the Hungarian presidency of the EU, János Bóka reminded that the basic task of the European Commission is to cooperate with the member states, and the attitude of the commission does not influence the work and success of the consecutive presidency.
The successive presidency decides which events it initiates and on which topics, and the success of the previous events amply supports this.
According to János Bóka, despite the controversies, the first phase of the Hungarian presidency has ended successfully, so far 30 official events have been organized in Budapest and Brussels within the framework of the successive Hungarian presidency. He considers it a serious success that they were able to make the European defense industry working group a permanent group during Hungary’s consecutive presidency. The rest of the work will continue at the end of August, with an informal meeting of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the ministers will discuss issues of general affairs. The next summit of the European Political Community will take place in Budapest on November 7, and the next day there will be an informal European Council meeting, at which the new EU competitiveness pact is planned to be adopted.
To the suggestion that the EU presidency would be taken away from Hungary due to Viktor Orbán’s visit to Moscow, Gergely Gulyás said that this has nothing to do with reality. According to the minister, the head of government can and did take steps to end the war on his own initiative, but he did not do so as the president in a row, and the two should not be confused.
The informal meeting at the end of August will be held in Brussels instead of Hungary, which was suggested by Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, because of the peace mission. According to János Bóka, the most appropriate answer to this would be if Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó “send a sandbox to the High Representative”. In any case, 13 member states insist on the location in Hungary, five are against it, and eight have not formed an opinion. Hungary was not asked in the matter, so it would be a clear majority.
Regarding the taxation of Chinese electric cars, János Bóka stated that the European Council should also confirm the decision. According to him, there is a serious debate between the member states, because the decision would break the union’s relationship with China in an area in which the Asian country plays a leading role. If the European green industry is not strengthened, the climate goals will become an illusion.
We only learned about the person of the new Hungarian EU Commissioner, that the invitation to be a Commissioner has already arrived in Budapest from the President of the European Commission, and the nomination deadline is the end of August. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will make a proposal for the person of the commissioner “in due time”.
One billion loan from China
Gergely Gulyás was asked what was the need for the Chinese gigacredit, but he averted it by saying that although it is rightfully of public interest, the Ministry of Finance must be informed about the details and thus the interest rate. By the way, the money is used for infrastructure, and according to Gulyás, this is normal business, the state takes out loans and repays loans. He denied that this was necessary because of the blocked EU funds, as he said, it is good for Hungary if its relations and borrowings are balanced in the spirit of connectivity.
It was also said that Chinese credit is better than EU credit, although not in terms of interest, but in terms of usability. The EU strongly restricts what the state can spend the loan on.
It was also mentioned in the Government Info
- the number of people enrolled in higher education has increased, many of them are over 30 years old, i.e. they are also studying while working. According to Eszter Vitályos, there were anomalies in the score calculations, in this case a complaint should be made to the Education Office.
- It will be easier for special taxpayers to get family support, this primarily affects primary agricultural producers and farmers.
- Currently, there is no further expansion of the family support system on the agenda, but it may still take place in this government cycle, even spectacular measures may be introduced. Without the subsidies, Hungary would lack children the size of the city of Győr.
- Similar to the airlines, Hungarian railways also experience significant delays, but consumer protection fines are not expected in the case of MÁV, as force majeure cases occur in the heat and are not related to the organization. There is still a refund due to the delays.
- The percentage of surgeries missed due to the heat was barely one percent. There are hospitals where the air conditioners have failed, these are special structures, it is not easy to repair or replace them. The Hungarian network is not prepared for 38-40 degrees either, and acute surgery was not missed anyway.
- In the last few weeks, investments worth more than one and a half billion forints have been made in the country.
- The plan is to reduce the budget deficit, and if this is successful, the excessive deficit procedure will not have any specific disadvantages for Hungary.
(Cover photo: Eszter Vitályos, János Bóka and Gergely Gulyás. Photo: Peter Papajcsik / Index)
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