The Act on Citizenship will not be made stricter

Prime Minister’s Office

János Lázár

Minister of Prime Minister’s Office

At the annual hearing of the Committee on National Cohesion on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister for Hungarian Communities Abroad Zsolt Semjén declared that he does not see the need to make the Act on Citizenship stricter.

He said that controls may become “harder”, although the responsible bodies are already conducting their work very thoroughly. He added that he is definitely against increasing bureaucratic burdens in this field.

Deputy State Secretary Tamás Wetzel said that to date almost 720 000 requests have been filed and 680 000 people have taken the oath; the process is functioning smoothly. Based on the current trends, by the end of the year 800 000 requests may be filed, Mr. Wetzel said – thus the projection of one million new citizens by the end of the government term seems to be realistic. So far 25 000 requests have been rejected; in terms of public and national security aspects, the controls are extremely strict.

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Photo: Lajos Soós/MTI

The greatest interest is being shown by Transcarpathian Hungarians, as these days a Hungarian passport may even save lives, Mr. Wetzel explained.

Talking about the Ukrainian situation, Mr. Semjén said that we have to prepare ourselves for all possible situations regarding support provided to Hungarians living in Transcarpathia – potentially even for receiving injured people. He declared that whatever help the Hungarians there may need, they will receive it; the State of Hungary stands by them, he said.

He also pointed out that it was his personal request that Katalin Szili be appointed to promote autonomy concepts; when the Hungarian Standing Conference was not operating, she was the person who created the Forum of Hungarian Representative from the Carpathian Basin – an institution which enabled contact through institutional channels.

Minister of State for National Policy Árpád János Potápi said that  next year is planned to be the thematic year of young Hungarian entrepreneurs abroad. He hopes the same amount of funding – HUF 500 million – will be available for the programme next year as well.

Mr. Potápi also said that the newly announced Petőfi Sándor Programme – focusing on Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin, Csángóföld (Bacău County, Romania) and countries of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy – has so far had 148 applicants, which represents a threefold oversubscription. He said that the call for applications for the HUF 100 million Twin City programme will be announced in the coming days. The projects of 100–120 settlements will be supported from this sum. Furthermore, following the example of the “We, Hungarians” exhibition, the preparations of a diaspora visitor centre and exhibition are also underway in the Magyarság Háza; the work may be finished by next year’s National Cohesion Day.

(MTI/Prime Minister's Office)

We must be better Hungarians+ video

Prime Minister’s Office

János Lázár

Minister of Prime Minister’s Office

In a speech given on the Memorial Day for Hungarian Victims of the Holocaust, János Lázár said that “the nation is more than just a community of interests: the nation is a community of fates”.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4coOuxlSQcA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You can turn the English subtitle on by clicking on the "captions" icon at the right bottom of the video.

At the remembrance ceremony held in the Uránia National Film Theatre, Budapest, the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office evoked the memory of Richter Gedeon, declaring that “We must be better Hungarians: it is our duty, this is what we are reminded of by the fate of the pharmacist executed by members of the Arrow Cross – a man who was a true patriot and a role model both in peace and war.”

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Photo: Károly ÁRVAI/Prime Minister’s Office

According to Mr. Lázár, today we must not remain silent and passive in the face of vicious ideologies in Hungary. He pointed out that, after what happened in the winter of 1944 on the banks of the Danube in Pest or at Auschwitz, in the Hungarian language anti-Semitic or anti-Roma insults can never be harmless, and intimidating denigration can likewise never be harmless.

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Photo: Károly ÁRVAI/Prime Minister’s Office

Mr. Lázár said that “we must make no concessions whatever” to the successors of those who dragged our compatriots to the banks of the Danube, or to those “who today spit into the shoes forever abandoned by the murdered victims”.

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Photo: Károly ÁRVAI/Prime Minister’s Office

There is no serum for the treatment of vicious ideologies; there is only one thing that can be done to combat such pathogens, the Minister said: Hungarians today must strengthen “our common immune system”, so that it can defeat the infection in time.

According to Mr. Lázár, recent symptoms have warned us that today, once again, “we cannot be satisfied with our collective immune system”.

It is the responsibility of us all, he said: some try to make problems seem less serious and downplay the signs; others are responsible for exaggerating all the time and crying wolf every day.

He added that some – either through short-sightedness or intent – are responsible for allowing aggressive bigots to show a different face in public: such people hide their tattoos and speak differently in public from the way they do behind closed doors.

Effective measures against the political descendants of the Hungarian Arrow Cross and their present-day equivalents are often difficult to enact as “the politicians of the segregationist party are not the same as those who actually support that party”, Mr. Lázár said, adding that “the majority of them are basically peaceful Hungarians”, who might be hot-headed and disaffected, but not evil in intent.

He said that stigmatization of a party might also stigmatize those people, and it cannot be in the interest of a democrat today “to push people who are at heart decent Hungarians into the same camp as the hatemongers.”

Mr. Lázár called for exposure of the “public figures wearing masks”, so that it becomes clear to everybody who they really are, before entrusting them with people’s futures and the country’s future.

“The better future they promise is in fact nothing but the squalid past”, he declared.

In his remembrance speech, Mr. Lázár also mentioned that every Hungarian knows the name of the father of the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry, Gedeon Richter; but his life story is not well-known.

He described Gedeon Richter as a real patriot and a role model in peace and war. he said that the reason Hungarians must remember the story of Gedeon Richter and his compatriots on the Memorial Day of their national tragedy, the Holocaust, is not simply the need to “give ourselves over to the quiet grief or the collective remorse kept for public holidays”. All this is necessary, he said, but not enough: more than that is owed. Today, in 2015, he said, “we must be better Hungarians”. This is Hungarians’ responsibility, and it is what the life and tragic death of Gedeon Richter remind them of, Mr. Lázár said.

He stated that the nation is more than just a community of interests: the nation is a community of fates. “We belong together through good times and bad, in glory and in grief, in pride and in shame.”

(MTI/Prime Minister's Office)

The Government of Vietnam proposes an investment worth EUR 350 million

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Péter Szijjártó

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

At a meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó and Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, the Government of Vietnam has proposed the construction of a new hospital and a water industry project worth EUR 350 million, to be implemented with Hungarian cooperation.

Highlighting the proposal’s importance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade noted that, as part of the tied-aid credit programme, Hungarian companies currently have investments worth EUR 25 million in Vietnam.

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Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

According to the Ministry, the meeting included discussion of development of economic cooperation between the two countries, as part of which the free trade agreement to be concluded between the EU and Vietnam could bring about significant progress. Mr. Szijjártó said that Hungary supports completion of the negotiations as soon as possible, because trade liberalisation would provide Hungary with clear benefits by increasing its exports to Vietnam.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade regarding the Memorial Day of the displacement of Hungarians from Felvidék

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Péter Szijjártó

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade hereby confirms that László Kövér, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary, communicated the opinion of the Hungarian Government – which is also known by the Slovak party – on the Memorial Day of the displacement of Hungarians from Felvidék in Komárom.

The displacements created hardly healing wounds, forcing tens of thousands of people to labour service and depriving them from their property and citizenship, are still very vivid in the memory of Hungarians. It is also important to use this opportunity to emphasise that we must all face the difficult moments of our common history. Good neighbourly relations assume dealing with the common past and debating sensitive issues.

As allies, we work on building a shared future be it the Visegrád cooperation, the European Union, NATO, the construction of new border crossing points, roads, bridges between Hungary and Slovakia or further increasing our bilateral trade.

We agree with the opinion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia in that trust between the two countries has never been as good as it is now and we are able to conduct dialogue on issues where our standpoints still differ.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

The Hungarian government concluded a strategic agreement with the Japanese Alpine Company

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Péter Szijjártó

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

The Hungarian government signed a strategic agreement with Japanese Alpine Electronics on Thursday in Budapest.

Minister of State for Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Levente Magyar signed the agreement on behalf of the government and the Japanese automotive supplier was represented by the Director of European Operations of the company, Toshinori Kobayashi.

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Photo: Zsolt BURGER

Levente Magyar said that this is the 58th strategic agreement concluded by the Hungarian government and a foreign investor, and the 7th one signed with a Japanese company. Thus Japan is the 3rd in the ranking of foreign investors signing a strategic agreement with the government after the USA and Germany, the Minister of State said.

The Hungarian government will give all the necessary assistance so that foreign investors, especially in the car industry, which is one of the leading sectors of the Hungarian economy and companies can find a long-term perspective in Hungary, he added.

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Photo: Zsolt BURGER

„It is no coincidence that Alpine chose Hungary as an investment destination 17 years ago", Director of European Operations Toshinori Kobayashi said at the signing ceremony. He added that the company has long-term plans in Hungary.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced in January that the Japanese company is investing USD 39 million (nearly HUF 11 billion) to develop its factory in Biatorbágy thus doubling its production capacity by 2018 and creating 500 new jobs.

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Photo: Zsolt BURGER

Currently 149 Japanese companies are present in Hungary and 46 of them are carrying out productive activity. The Japanese companies implemented investments with a total value of USD 4.5 billion in Hungary and have more than 25,000 employees in the country.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

We consider Egypt to be one of the most important pillars of European stability

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Péter Szijjártó

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at the joint press conference with his Egyptian colleague, Sameh Shoukry on Thursday in Budapest that we consider Egypt to be one of the most important pillars of European stability.

Hungary considers it extremely important to have stability in the North African country since the terrorist organisations threatening the stability of Egypt are also threatening that of Europe, added Péter Szijjártó.

Hungary seriously condemns the activities of terrorist groups such as the organisation called Islamic State (IS), the Al-Qaeda international terrorist organisation, the Al-Shabaab extremist Islamist organisation or the Nigerian-based terrorist group Boko Haram, the leader of Hungarian diplomacy emphasised.

Péter Szijjártó considered that the Hungarian Parliament made a responsible and wise decision when voting for sending Hungarian soldiers to Erbil, Iraq. He added that the Government is currently working to secure that the military units can take their positions in their place of service in the middle of May in the Middle East country. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade consulted over the phone among others with the ministers of foreign affairs of Iraq and the Regional Government of Kurdistan the day before, and he is planning to travel to Iraq in May.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary emphasised that the activities of the terrorist organisations cause serious humanitarian disaster in the Middle East and North African region. For this reason, hundreds of refugees are trying to enter Europe through the Mediterranean. Péter Szijjártó considered that the best remedy for illegal immigration is establishing the local economic and political conditions that help eradicate the social phenomena fuelling terrorism.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt emphasised that Cairo highly appreciates Hungarian-Egyptian bilateral relations and is hoping that these may continue to develop in the future.

Sameh Shoukry claimed that in order to eliminate the destructive phenomenon of terrorism, terrorist organisations all over the world are needed to be handled uniformly and in an overarching manner. A uniform approach is necessary to eradicate the social and economic phenomena fuelling terrorism.

The leader of Egyptian diplomacy said that with his Hungarian colleague they agreed on maintaining contact continuously and taking into consideration a policy that could make the Middle East safe.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs signed an agreement on bilateral educational, scientific and cultural cooperation according to which nearly one hundred Egyptian students will arrive to Hungary to study at one of the higher education institutions.

Péter Szijjártó said about Egyptian-Hungarian bilateral trade relations that these are developing continuously: in the first month of 2015 there was a 17% increase in the trade between the two countries compared to the same period last year. The total amount of trade in goods was nearly USD 21 million in January.

The leader of the Hungarian diplomacy added that the Hungarian National Trading House has been operating in Cairo since last November and claimed that Eximbank provides a credit facility up to USD 19.28 million for Egyptian investors.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán receives the Vice-President of the European Commission

The Prime Minister

Viktor Orbán

The Prime Minister

Press Chief of the Prime Minister’s Office Bertalan Havasi informed kormany.hu that on Friday Prime Minister Viktor Orbán invited Vice-President of the European Commission Jyrki Katainen to the Parliament for a working lunch.

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Photo: Gergely BOTÁR/Prime Minister’s Office

The meeting was also attended by EU Commissioner Tibor Navracsics, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office János Lázár, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó and Minister of National Development Miklós Seszták.

(Prime Minister's Office)