Development Ministry on the Achievements of the Hungarian Presidency

Hungary will benefit from it’s successful presidency in the long term, as stated during the press conference organised by the Ministry of National Development to give account of the activities and achievements of the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union with the participation of Minister Tamás Fellegi, Minister of State for Infocommunication Zsolt Nyitrai, Minister of State for Infrastructure Pál Völner and Deputy State Secretary for European Union and International Affairs Tamás Iván Kovács on 15 July, 2011.

The Hungarian Presidency fulfilled its commitments at a high standard, and managed to make achievements and bring about strategic turning points that were equally important for the European Union and Hungary, among others, in fields under the supervision of the Ministry of National Development, said Tamás Fellegi.

He called the attention to the fact that in the course of the past six months numerous unexpected challenges were met – including the euro crisis, the Japanese disaster, the volcanic eruption in Iceland, and the series of North African social changes – which had particular impact on the discussions of energy/transport and cohesion policy affairs.

In spite of all these, the Hungarian Presidency could reach a compromise or a near-compromise in most open issues, and efficiently facilitated launching new cooperation within the European Union, he added. As he highlighted, the Hungarian Presidency was the first to be able to broker an agreement regarding the future of Cohesion Policy with the joint commitment of the Member States, and sectoral policy along with the issue of energy – which are of outstanding significance for Hungary among many other countries – was discussed for the very first time at the highest level: by heads of state and government during Hungary’s Presidency.

In Mr Fellegi’s opinion we can be particularly proud of the major steps taken in the interest of creating a single energy market and the elimination of isolated energy supply areas (energy islands), which are fundamental preconditions of uninterrupted supply in Hungary and elsewhere.

As a clear achievement of the Hungarian Presidency, at the February 2011 Energy Council, conclusions were adopted to determine short-, medium- and long-term priorities in common energy strategy for the period ending in 2020. The Member States undertook to create a single internal market by 2014 and committed to terminate all isolated energy areas (energy islands), by the next year.

The Hungarian Presidency efficiently contributed to the progress made in significant cooperations like the North-South Energy Corridor, an infrastructure network development programme aimed at a more diversified energy resource supply and higher energy security in the Central and South-eastern European region. As the political and legal obstacles preventing the Nabucco project could also be removed, specific financial and feasibility planning can start in the next period, the minister added.

Mr. Tamás Fellegi also touched upon the extraordinary council meeting convened in March 2011 on account of the crisis situation caused by the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and the North African political uncertainty, where the participants discussed the state of the energy sector and the consequences of the recent events for the energy market. They expressed their support to the preparation and transparent implementation of overall security assessments of European nuclear power stations. The Member States of the European Union started voluntary stress tests on 1 June 2011.

The long-term settlement of energy efficiency and energy saving issues affected the research, development and innovation area, had an impact on the improved and sustainable environment, and required economy boosting and society development tasks Mr Fellegi said.

Hungary endeavoured to compile a presidency programme tightly adjusted to the European Union’s climate change policy objectives. As he reported, during the Hungarian Presidency, we managed to channel international negotiations in the right direction, specify the tasks marked out by the Cancún Agreement and schedule their implementation, advance discussions related to the Low-Carbon Roadmap, and, at the June 2011 UN session held in Bonn, the Hungarian Presidency also made remarkable efforts at preserving the Kyoto quota assets. In the field of Cohesion Policy, the Ministry endeavoured to maintain the Policy‘s relative weight during the next budgetary period to start in 2014, as among the European Union’s policies this one offers one of the highest potentials. For this reason, he stressed, for the Hungarian Presidency, the reinforcement of Cohesion Policy was of high priority, as Europe cannot be unified and competitive unless cohesion is maintained.

By achieving the adoption of an agreement of a joint commitment by the Member States, the Hungarian Presidency facilitated the maintenance of the principle of solidarity in fund allocation, in order to ensure that Cohesion Funds serve convergence and as far as possible they are not cut, Minister Fellegi added. In addition to laying new foundations for regional development, the adoption of another important document, the Territorial Agenda 2020 also determined a new rule of thumb for all European Union policies. It was decided that in the interest of efficient Cohesion Policy, flexibility must be allowed for the Member States and regions, while focusing the policy more intensively on achievements. In the future, in addition to specific regulatory issues, an agreement must be made on the share of the transport and energy sectors, pivotal for Europe’s competitiveness, in the Cohesion Policy funds, Tamás Fellegi pointed out.

In the area of telecommunication, the Hungarian Presidency focused on information security and protection, the restoration of digital confidence and the prevention of digital crime. Progress in these matters has become urgent for reasons of several recent hacker attacks and IT damages, Zsolt Nyitrai highlighted. He reported that regarding the Digital Agenda and spectrum policy the objectives had actually been accomplished and this contributed to the availability of the indispensable means that can help Europe compete globally in telecommunication.

Mr. Nyitrai emphasised that the Hungarian Presidency also furthered the interpretation and inquiry of events jeopardising the security of information systems, improvement in the efficiency of European and international cooperation, and the protection of critical information infrastructures. Hungary encouraged the adoption of the first radio spectrum policy programme (RSPP), which may create the conditions of wireless broadband and other frequency-based services and spread them all over Europe, and by the extension the mandate of ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) with unchanged content for 18 months on a temporary basis, we managed to terminate the uncertainty surrounding the operation of this organisation, he pointed out.

In the field of transport, the European Parliament’s transport and tourism committee evaluated the Hungarian Presidency’s term as one of the most successful presidency periods, reported Pál Völner. In the field of transport policy, he highlighted two issues of strategic significance: the White Book of Transport policy for the period between 2010 and 2020, and the review of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). These documents lay the foundations for the concepts determining the European Union’s future economy management system.

The most important and urgent tasks identified by the participants of the vigorous and efficient debate on the White Book of transport included the reinforcement of European transport research and innovation policy, the interconnection of transport networks, completion of the Single European Transport Region, the development of new financing frameworks for transport infrastructure development and maintenance, launching additional local and national actions to improve public road security, and the spread of smart transport systems.

Social and economic cohesion cannot be achieved without the construction of all the missing elements of the complete TEN-T network and improving the existing infrastructure elements that are in a poor condition. Insufficient access may slow economic development in the entire European Union. As a result of the work performed during the Hungarian presidency, numerous elements were included in the Commission’s proposal, Mr Völner stressed.

It is also considered as an tremendous success that during the term of the Hungarian Presidency a long dragged series of negotiations could be closed successfully regarding the amendment of the directive on charging heavy vehicles for the use of the road infrastructure (“Eurovignette”). This amended directive was one of the most important regulations in transport, he added.

Pál Völner also reported that by the adoption of the Budapest Charter the opportunity of setting up functional air space blocks had been created to considerably cut costs, and an agreement was reached on inland shipping, another highly favourable area of cutting external costs. Mr. Völner mentioned that with the successful closing of talks conducted for 12 years, the Hungarian Presidency contributed to the creation of the single internal rail market and thus improved the competitiveness of the transport of persons and goods by rail, giving an opportunity to increasing its share compared to other modes of transport.

Tamás Iván Kovács reported that during the term of the Hungarian Presidency, the Ministry of National Development contributed to the organisation of nine ministerial council sessions, five informal ministerial meetings, twenty two executive conferences and events, twelve informal trialogues, and 183 council working group meetings.

Senior leadership of the Ministry of National Development chaired the energy, transport and telecommunications section activities in the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council of the European Union and the climate change policy section of the Environment Council, and also attended to presidency tasks related space policy, cohesion policy and regional development matters. Mr. Kovács stressed that preparation for the six months of the presidency was intensive as early as in the summer of 2010, and numerous tasks remain. Despite the large number of unexpected situations, one of the largest successes of the Hungarian Presidency was that relations with the senior leaders of the European Union had been fundamentally improved, which facilitate Hungary’s position at the future international and EU negotiations, Tamás Iván Kovács added.

(Ministry of National Development , Department of Communication)