The Ministry of Agriculture organised and hosted the Plenary Meeting of European Network of Environmental Authorities and Managing Authorities for the second time in the capital. In his opening speech, Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas stressed that the fulfilment of further environmental derogation requirements is continuous and will be completed by 2020, meaning we are in the advantageous situation of being able to pay greater attention during the 2014-2020 period to increasing energy and resource-efficiency, or to conservation, which is one of the main topics of the current Meeting.
The EU organisation was founded in 2014 with the aim of facilitating better integration on the part of member states with relation to the environmental criteria included in Cohesion Policy. In addition to member states, the Network also includes the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Regional Environment Centre (REC), and representatives of European green movements (WWF, Bankwatch, etc.).
The Ministry of Agriculture hosted the event for the first time in the spring off 2011 during Hungary’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, following which a smaller-scale working group session was also held in Budapest in the autumn of 2015 to close the financial framework of the 2014-2020 programming period.
“Hungary did a good job of fulfilling environmental basic infrastructure related EU resolutions for the period 2017-2013, including requirements relating to assuring a healthy environment (waste management, water supply, wastewater treatment”, the Minister said.
Mr. Fazekas said that one of the key topics of the environmental negotiations currently underway within the framework of the European Union is the transition to a rotating economy, which poses a huge challenges to both governments and environmental organisations and institutions in view of the fact that for the moment we have no clear roadmap or recipe that clearly indicates what we need to do to support the green economy. “Through joint effort and the continuous exchange of information, including at meeting such as this one, Europe can succeed in rediscovering the path to maintaining its leading role within the field of environmental protection”, the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture said.