Swedish choir wins Debrecen competition

Sweden's St Jacobs Ungdomskoer choir has won the Europe Grand Prix of the 26th International Choral Singing competition held in Debrecen on the weekend, the event's organiser said on Monday.

Four choirs were in competition performing 25-30 minutes productions each for the main prize in one of the world's most prestigious and most difficult choir competitions, said Sandor Kerekes of Fonix communications agency.

The Swedish group composed of singers aged between 20-29 won the prize going with a cash award of 3,000 euros, he said.
The other three competitors included another choir from Sweden, a choir from Ireland and one from Puerto Rico.

Turkey, Finnish author Sofi Oksanen guests of honour at 2014 Budapest Book Fair

The country of Turkey and Finnish author Sofi Oksanen will be guests of honour at this year's Budapest International Book Fair taking place next month, the event's director said on Tuesday.

Turkey, to be a guest of honour country at the fair for the first time, will set up a 150-square-metre stand and present works by authors, the Turkish ambassador told a press conference for the fair.

Two of the authors, Elif Safak and Iskender Pala, will be present at the event, Sakir Fakili said. The Turkish stand will host several panel discussions, he added.
Guest of honour Sofi Oksanen will receive the Budapest Grand Prix, the highest Hungarian literary award granted to a foreign author, from Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos on the fair's opening day on April 24.
Other eminent guests to the four-day fair include Hungarian-born American political scientist Charles Gati, Pulitzer Prize-winning Polish-American author Anne Applebaum and Norwegian author Jorgen Lorentzen.

At the fair, a separate stand featuring an exhibition will be set up to mark the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Holocaust and the 25th anniversary of Hungarian-Israeli diplomatic relations.
The tenth anniversary of Hungary's EU accession and the 25th anniversary of the dismantling of the Iron Curtain at the Austrian border will also be highlighted at the fair organised in the Millenaris cultural centre.

Madach Intl Theatre Festival opens

The Madach International Theatre Meeting (MITEM), a part of the ongoing Budapest Spring festival, began on Wednesday.

Organised for the first time, the festival will feature 20 productions from Hungary and 12 other countries, the organisers said.

The guest of honour this year is Russia from where three theatre directors, Anatoly Vasilev, Viktor Rizhakov and Valery Fokin, arrived in Budapestevent.

Other guests include Lithuanian director Rimas Tuminas, French director Claude Regy and Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse.

MITEM is hosted by the National Theatre where two exhibitions have opened featuring Hungarian 19th-century writer Imre Madach and Hungarian-Russian theatre relations, said Attila Vidnyanszky, the theatre's director.

During the festival's 13 days theatre-goers can see productions from Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Baghdad, Novi Sad, Vilnius, Bucharest and Oslo.

Tate Gallery to return Constable looted from Hungarian collector in 1944

London's Tate Gallery will return a Constable painting to the heirs of Baron Ferenc Hatvany from whom, according to the British government, it was looted by Nazi troops in 1944.

According to a Thursday statement by the gallery, the institution accepts a recommendation by a committee of the British culture ministry, and will restitute Beaching a Boat, Brighton to unnamed heirs that filed a claim for the picture.

According to the online version of The Art Newspaper, the heirs filed their claim two years ago to the Spoliation Advisory Panel of the UK government, which is to locate and restitute art objects stolen at the time of the Holocaust and then taken to Britain.

The panel's report said that the painting, bought by the baron at a Paris auction in 1908, had been “taken in the course of anti-Semitic persecution of the collector and his family by the German occupying forces either from one of his homes or from a bank vault”. The heirs “therefore have a strong moral claim for the restitution of the painting”, the report added.
The panel also criticised Tate for its "failure to investigate the Constable's provenance" and said that “it would not have been difficult to have made enquires of the Hungarian government, [which] included the painting on its official [1998] list of looted art from the late 1940s.”

Prime Minister opens new Knorr-Bremse assembly plant in Kecskemét

March 27, 2014 2:08 PM

h 27, 2014 2:08 PM

Hungary's biggest competitive advantage is its fast speed, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pointed out at the opening of a new Knorr-Bremse assembly plant in Kecskemét, central Hungary, on Thursday.

He stated that the plant built in 12 months by the brake systems manufacturer was a speed record, but even this could be broken in the near future. It is necessary for Hungarians to "always be faster than everyone, even those who are today faster than us", he added.

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Photo: Károly Árvai

The investment could not have been completed without the Hungarian workers, who proved that they are able to compete with any other country in the world in making serial products of a quality with evenly good standards, he highlighted. Heinz Hermann Thiele, Head of the board of supervisors at Knorr-Bremse, said the Hungarian Government had provided significant support for the project.

Prime Minister Orbán said Hungarians must understand the challenges of competition and find new goals and new competitions to enter. He emphasised that he was personally grateful to Knorr-Bremse for opening a development centre in Budapest in 1999, which paved the way for Hungary to join the global elites in research, technology and development.

The 19,000 square metre plant was built on nearly 9 hectares in a green field investment from 6 billion forints (EUR 19.2m). The company used 1.4 billion forints worth of funding from the EU and the Hungarian government for the project.

(Prime Minister's Office)

Hungary raised the issue of Bolivian violation at the UN Human Rights Council

March 27, 2014 5:24 PM

  On March 26, the United Nations Human Rights Council, among others, discussed the annual report on Bolivia prepared by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

At the meeting, on behalf of the Hungarian government, András Dékány, Hungary’s UN Ambassador in Geneva, referred to the case of a Hungarian citizen, Előd Tóásó, arbitrarily detained in Bolivia.

Recommendations had been so far ignored and Hungary called on Bolivia to free Előd Tóásó in compliance with its international obligations, in particular those concerning pre-trial detention. Hungary thanked the local bureau of the Office of the High Commissioner concerning the legal and human rights aspects of the case. Hungary hoped that the Government of Bolivia would respond constructively to this case and open new beneficial avenues.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

4-es metró nyílik Budapesten

28 március 2014 01:58

Budapest's fourth metro line, linking Kelenföld and the Keleti railway stations, was opened to the public on Friday, on which occasion a ceremony was held in the presence of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Mayor of Budapest István Tarlós at the Kelenföld terminus.

n his speech, the Prime Minister attributed the success of the project to the unity that emerged amongst Hungarians in 2010. He said Budapest will be a proud capital if it embarks on such ambitious projects, stressing the importance of cooperating with the central government.

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Photo: Gergely Botár

To demonstrate further examples of projects successfully realised in the Hungarian capital, the Prime Minister mentioned the renovation of Kossuth Square, the Budapest Music Center, the Liszt Academy of Music and the Erkel Theatre, as well as the soon-to-be-completed Castle Bazaar, Ferencváros Stadium, the Ludovica Campus, the Tüskecsarnok Stadium and the reconstruction of Erzsébet Square.

Mayor Tarlós called the newly opened metro line one of Hungary's biggest investment projects over the past few decades and more "a result of chaotic preparations, then serious efforts”. The current expansion of the underground network indicates that the leaders of Budapest and the central government “are willing and able to cooperate”, he said.

The Mayor underlined that the international agreements concluded in 2005 and 2006 with regard to the construction of the metro line did not make any further consideration possible in 2010 about the continuation of the investment. He also stated that after renegotiating the contracts, the capital was able to regain tens of billions of forints, and instead of the “metro-politics” of previous leaderships, construction was finally realised successfully.

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Photo: Gergely Botár

The metro line’s 15 vehicles, each with four wagons, will be controlled automatically, but monitoring will also be present during the test phase to ensure absolute safety.

The project was financed by the Hungarian State and the City of Budapest, with co-funding from the European Union. Its total budget was HUF 452.5 billion (EUR 1.5 billion), of which HUF 180 billion (EUR 600 million) was derived from EU funding, including a risk reserve of HUF 67.5 billion.
Passengers can travel on the new metro line free of charge until the end of service on Sunday.

(Prime Minister’s Office)

Prime Minister: Hungary performing better than EU average

March 28, 2014 11:16 AM

Hungary is performing better than the European Union average with regard to all key economic indicators, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on public Kossuth radio on Friday.

The Prime Minster noted that of one million new jobs promised over a period of ten years more than 250,000 have already been created, more than anyone would have imagined in 2010.

He highlighted the difference that during previous governments unskilled, unemployed workers living in disadvantaged regions received benefits, whereas the current administration offers them work.

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Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák

The Prime Minister stressed that last year there was a breakthrough as real wages could increase thanks to public utility cuts and low inflation.

Hungary has fared better in terms of employment, economic growth, inflation and its foreign account balance than the average of the European Union, he added.

Regarding education, Prime Minister Orbán underlined that there are promising signs in vocational training and courses are better adjusted to the needs of industry. There is still a lot to do in primary education, but the foundations of a good public education system have been laid down, he said.

Regarding plans for the future, he highlighted the importance of full employment and further cuts in household utility prices, adding that changing the trend that most people do have not enough savings is even more significant.

He concluded that families must be supported and the country needs to be strengthened economically to achieve a more peaceful, balanced way of life.

(Prime Minister's Office)