Hungary has demonstrated that jobs can be created even with the maintenance of financial discipline and the reduction of the sovereign debt, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated on Wednesday in Milan before the start of the Employment Summit.
„We are reducing our sovereign debt and keeping our fiscal deficit under control; meanwhile, our economy is growing and we are in consequence experiencing a fall in unemployment”, the Prime Minister said in describing the situation in Hungary. He reiterated, the Hungarian Government recommends to the European Union that „we should not abandon this path” because a low fiscal deficit and a low rate of sovereign debt are not only legal constraints within the EU but constitute the foundations of a reasonable economic policy; „all we have to do is adjust the rest of our economic policy to these requirements”.
Viktor Orbán takes the view that Hungary is one of the few countries which have succeeded in reducing unemployment; while the rate of unemployment was in excess of 11 per cent in 2010, it currently stands at 7.6-7.8 per cent. He stated that he will also present the Hungarian concepts regarding the policy of a work-fare society to the participants of the Milan summit, and will request the rest of the Prime Ministers of the European Union to support Hungary’s economic policy in the future because it clearly and perceivably serves the attainment of the European objectives as well, he added.
The Prime Minister sought support with the resolution of the plight of foreign currency debtors, the reduction of household utility bills and, in general, the acceptance on a European level of the Hungarian economic policy as "the Hungarian economic policy departs from the general European policies on a number of points”. The results and facts, however, speak for themselves, he said.
Viktor Orbán also met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom he discussed foreign affairs and energy policy issues.
In the context of energy policy, Viktor Orbán stated, Hungary will take part in the joint European efforts but is, at this point in time, compelled to provide for its own energy security, and the country „is currently occupied with stocking its own storage facilities".
At the same time, he indicated that, following the present phase of test operation, the Hungarian-Slovak interconnection gas pipeline will be fully operational as of 1 January 2015 which will guarantee Hungary’s energy supply and „we shall also be able to transport non-Russian gas to Ukraine, should our Ukrainian friends so desire”.
Heads of state and prime ministers from the European Union will be discussing in Milan issues concerning the resolution of the high rate of unemployment experienced among young people. This is not the first meeting of its kind; EU leaders held consultations on the questions of unemployment in the EU in Berlin and Paris last year.