Good afternoon and welcome to our press point. We have the great pleasure of welcoming the President of the European Commission and the Prime Minister of Hungary, Peter Magyar. Welcome, President. Good afternoon. A very warm welcome, Minister Peter. Brussels, the 12th of April, stays in our memory. Democracy, champion, winding, day, European Union, proudly over Hungarian Parliament are symbols that a new era is beginning for Hungary. In record time you formed government, ministers drawn from the top ranks of professions, stepping up interest, government moving speed and determination, delivering promises you made to the Hungarian people. We will take no shortcuts, we will address all issues, we will work hand in hand for the good of Hungary and the European Union. Out of the areas, Hungary much needed to fight corruption and state capture in Hungary, also unlock billions of euros funding frozen over the last years. Now your government and the European Commission, we together immediately went to work, agreed on concerns. Indeed, Hungary decided to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office to safeguard European funds in the future. You have agreed to strengthen the integrity authority, realties to detect and fight corruption as well as conflict of interests. Taxpayers, addressed structures, high risks of state captures. The public interest trust, the pit that covered increasing large parts of the Hungarian economy will be phased out. Strong signals for Hungary. Benefit Hungary, benefit European Union. Point investments. Our teams worked hard day and night together to find common ground, agree on list of investments for the revised Next Generation EU. Key sectors such as energy, housing, transport, small and medium enterprises. We agreed on a safe solid landing zone reforms. Unlock billions for Hungary. On topic funds, progress on super milestones, unlock funds. Progress on protection of fundamentals in Hungary, not academic freedom. Hungary will phase out public interest trust pit and pass legislation to address concerns, conflict of interest and integrity. Billions of funds for Hungary. Protection, more steps taken, direction of travel. And finally, a special word on Erasmus. This iconic program is one of the great trademarks of the European Union. Erasmus, Europeans love. In doing so, our diversity is our strength, and it is so important that young Hungarians can benefit from this wonderful experience. So as early as the next academic year, good news, Hungarian students can also be again part of the Erasmus community. With that, dear Peter, let me conclude. A great deal of work has already been achieved in a very short time, and markets are already taking notice. Investors' confidence is returning, trust is being rebuilt.
I am really grateful for you personally and all of your colleagues for the tremendous work. You know, we just started the negotiations five weeks ago and now we are here. Just after three weeks the new Hungarian government was formed and we have achieved already a historic breakthrough, an agreement really, really important for the Hungarian people, for my beloved country, Hungary. Thanks are grateful and are cooperating together in the interest of the Hungarian people and all the European citizens. And I would like to also thank my colleagues, all of the Hungarian ministers and colleagues in the government, working very, very hard all the days, all the nights. There were some points when I thought it was hopeless.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear Hungarian compatriots! One of our most important commitments in the election campaign was that we would bring home, we would unfreeze that many thousands of billions of HUF in EU support that is due to the Hungarian people, Hungarian companies, Hungarian public services, healthcare, education, transport, and the social sector. For a long time, we listened to the previous government about what could not be done and why. They constantly lied to the Hungarian people, they lied about the European Union. Orbán and his government lied about European institutions and lied about the real reason for the freezing of EU funds. They lied that the reason the Union would not give the Hungarian people the many thousands of billions of HUF was because Hungary, a different Hungarian government, held a different position on illegal immigrants, the Russian-Ukrainian war, or certain human rights. I, and I myself in the election campaign, clearly stated that the real reason why European institutions, the European Union, was not in a position to give this many thousands of billions of HUF was corruption. It was a level of corruption that was long unimaginable in the European Union and in Hungary. It was unimaginable that a prime minister and his family would be directly connected to hundreds of billions of HUF or even thousands of billions of HUF in corruption. From the very beginning, I have said that if Hungary accepts anti-corruption measures, if we establish the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, if we strengthen the powers of the integrity authority, if we adopt conflict of interest rules like other countries, then this money will come. And lo and behold, we did nothing more. We jointly accepted the anti-corruption measures with the Commission and the measures mentioned by the President. And that was enough, and a few weeks were enough for us to reach an agreement, to conclude a political agreement on this huge amount of EU funds. Three weeks, three or four weeks were enough for what Viktor Orbán and his outgoing government could not achieve in three or four years, or did not want to achieve, we don't know. This is already part of history, as Viktor Orbán is also part of history, which has better and more beautiful parts. It will be clear in a few decades where he belongs. Please, we agreed with the President, we agreed with the European Commission on all the issues mentioned there, which make it possible for the Hungarian people to access the funds they are entitled to. On April 12th, as the President also mentioned, the Hungarian people gave an unprecedented political mandate to the new Hungarian government, the Tisza government. They also gave a mandate, among other things, to bring these funds home and to finally start the Hungarian economy, an economy that has been unable to grow for four years. An economy that had the highest inflation in Europe, where we are fighting every day to prevent public services from collapsing. We will bring these funds home, as we promised, for the reconstruction of Hungary, for starting the economy, for restoring and developing public services, for strengthening the competitiveness of Hungarian companies, small and medium-sized enterprises. Our goal was clear from the beginning, both in informal and official negotiations. We negotiated very hard, perhaps the President can confirm this. We fought for every euro, as I indicated at the beginning, that we need the whole amount.
Indeed. Okay. Thanks and sorry for that. So we negotiated hard, even last night, and then again at dawn, and we succeeded, and I think this is our joint success. This is a joint success of Hungary and the European Union, the European institutions. We conducted detailed negotiations. And I can say that indeed, as the President also said, overall, based on today's agreement, we agreed on the release of 16.2 billion euros. I am telling this to our compatriots, this is still about 6,000 billion HUF even with the strengthening forint exchange rate. This is 13% of the Hungarian annual budget, just to give you a sense of the scale. Of course, one eye is crying and the other is laughing, because it is very sad that what the European Commission and the President asked for in the interest of European and Hungarian taxpayers could have been fulfilled even before. If the Orbán government had really governed in the interest of the Hungarian people, if it had really wanted to start the economy, if it had really wanted to develop the collapsing Hungarian healthcare, if it had really wanted to buy new train carriages instead of the ones that catch fire, it could have done so, because today we proved that there were no ideological issues and expectations here in Brussels, but simply that corruption must be fought in the best possible way. And I can also say that perhaps we will even exceed the Commission's expectations in this regard. We will adopt anti-corruption measures that are stricter than requested in several places. And I was indeed able to hand over Hungary's official application to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office to the President. We hope that the process, the accession process, will be completed as quickly as possible. It will not be our fault. Please, what we have established. The President partly touched on this, and I don't want to repeat too much of it, but what is important is that we have accepted the reform of the asset declaration system, because the current asset declaration system was good for nothing. From it, it could not even be determined that one of Orbán's ministers, who said he was an inventor and thus could obtain huge revenues annually, could not even add two plus two. So it is obviously in the interest of the Hungarian people to create a very strict asset declaration system, and not only to create it, but to make these asset declarations verifiable. Moreover, there should even be consequences if someone intentionally provides false information, whether it is the President of the Republic, a representative, or any other public dignitary, or any of our compatriots performing public work. We are ready with the draft legislation, a rather thick package. And there is a point in it, just to mention, that anyone who intentionally provides false data in their asset declaration can be punished with up to two years in prison. As I said, we are joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office. We declare zero tolerance for corruption. We will eliminate the opportunities for public assets to be bypassed by power into their own hands, or into the hands of their oligarchs or family members, instead of the Hungarian people. Please, as the President also mentioned, this 16 billion, 16 billion, 16.4 billion euros has several parts. And if you allow me, I will mention a few parts. Of this, 4.4 billion euros is cohesion funding, which is spendable, and which the Hungarian government can spend on transport development, health investments, social investments, environmental investments, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises. 2.2 billion euros is linked to education, primarily to the development of higher education, and research and development. In addition, we can account for several billion euros for already completed or ongoing projects and investments. I look at the Finance Minister, András Kármán, whose face immediately lights up with a smile, because it means that with this several billion euros, the Hungarian budget's room for maneuver increases. And of course, I could look at the other ministers too, because it means that from this released amount, we will be able to make new investments in the interest of the Hungarian people and Hungarian companies. Here we are talking about almost 4 billion euros. In addition, another 500 million, almost 600 billion HUF, we can spend on electrical grid development, grid development, which is important because we can continue installing solar panels, wind farms can be created, we will set up storage capacities, balancing capacities, which will ultimately contribute to Hungarian companies, whether small and medium-sized enterprises, or large companies, or Hungarian households, getting cheaper energy, primarily electricity. This is important because currently Hungarian companies get the most expensive electricity most of the time in all of Europe. We must change this, and with this we can also increase the competitiveness of Hungarian companies. If I look at Minister Dávid Vitézy, the Minister of Transport, he gets the biggest smile on his face when he sees that we will be able to spend almost 2 billion euros on new train sets, new train sets, local interest train sets. This will be a huge step forward, especially if we compare it to the previous government and János Lázár, who destroyed Hungarian transport, and who instead of buying new train sets, leased 30-year-old train sets, which are the ones catching fire now, which the previous government leased. We decided that with the help of the European Union, we will buy new train sets. This will be visible in a few years on Hungarian intercity lines and in Budapest's public transport. I think this is very, very good news. We also agreed on digital technology developments and the launch of small and medium-sized enterprise support programs worth several billion euros. These include support and credit parts. Overall, once again, we are talking about 16.4 billion euros, which is more than 10%, about 13%, of the current Hungarian budget. I think this is truly a historic day. For Hungary, certainly, if so much money can be obtained here, I am happy to come to Brussels more often. The truth is that many are surprised, but I really love this city, because we spent nine years here with my family, my three wonderful sons, and I always come back with joy. Yesterday I had a successful meeting with the NATO Secretary General and the Belgian Prime Minister, and we discussed with the President that my first official Council participation will be on June 18th at the European Council meeting. Please, economic growth, competitiveness, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, investments, encouraging job creation, alleviating the housing crisis, I forgot to mention that we will be able to spend huge amounts from these funds to alleviate the housing crisis in Hungary, to build rental housing programs, which not only means the money we get here, perhaps 600-700-800 million euros for this, but due to the multiplier effect, the entry of private money, this could be four or five times as much. So thousands of apartments or even dormitory places can be built from this. Transport developments, stable budget, and the fight against corruption. I am very, very grateful, I will be honest, there will probably be a question about this, so maybe I will preempt it. The negotiations with the European Commission, with the Commission leaders, with the President, were exclusively about the unfreezing of Hungarian EU funds, about bringing the EU money home. Today, there was no other topic between us. Certainly not in connection with these funds. We know exactly that this is a political agreement, a very strong signal, and that we have a huge amount of work to do, we have to adopt a huge number of laws. But the good news is that today Hungary has the most stable government in the entire European Union. I think we have 71% of the seats in the Hungarian Parliament. So even if there is a flu epidemic, we will be able to adopt these laws. And if we look at the latest opinion polls, if there were an election today, we might already have too many seats, and we would be suspicious here that there isn't such great rule of law. So we won't hold an election in Hungary for a while, because an opposition is needed. Thank you very much that we could be here and that we could reach such a truly historic agreement, and we are working together with great joy for the future and competitiveness of Hungary and the European Union. Thank you very much, Madam President.
Thank you very much. I will also answer quickly. The President stated the numbers, so I won't repeat them. Obviously, there is a breakdown, I also tried to explain it, but we will have time to discuss it in detail. I can say that the failed, ousted government talks a lot about this migration pact. The President can confirm that Viktor Orbán sat here in Brussels for quite a long time, participating in European Council meetings for 16 years. Sometimes they sent him out for coffee, but basically he participated. Sometimes he delegated another prime minister, but basically he was here, and I think it could be noticed when he was here. Now he and his government had every opportunity to prevent the adoption of the migration pact, if he didn't like it, if he didn't consider it useful. He failed. Viktor Orbán in recent years has basically failed to achieve anything, because he vetoed for the sake of vetoing, and therefore he didn't have many allies left. And when it came to legislative dossiers where unanimity was not required, he couldn't find allies or enough allies, and couldn't substantially influence the legislation. Even if he was right. But let's not forget one thing. This migration pact, which the President also mentioned, was adopted during Viktor Orbán's government, during his Brussels trips. It was his responsibility to prevent this. It was adopted, and it is a directly applicable legislative package. And what Orbán and his people forget to tell at home, while their propaganda is already on the verge of collapse, but some of the old guard's hard titans are still fighting like an underground movement, what this propaganda forgets to say is that there are many tightenings in this legislative package. Because Viktor Orbán was right around 2015 regarding illegal migration, and the Union's position and many capitals' positions on illegal migration have changed a lot. And precisely because of this, the migration pact contains tightenings in many areas, more effective protection of the EU's external borders. And what they usually talk about in propaganda regarding this pact, the name is not very fortunate, by the way, when I can participate in the legislation here, I will give advice on how to name legislative packages in a way that is less frightening for people, but that's a detail. I can say that this is about what happens if there is again a mass migration, a migration wave similar to 2015, how the member states will act. And there are several options for how they act. Those who want to, take in migrants, those who don't, can pay. And those who cannot even take that on, whether due to their constitutional setup or political will, can provide help to EU member states for the protection of the EU's external borders. This is what it's about, which Viktor Orbán and his government also voted for, and which they now talk about as if it were the devil. I can only confirm here in Brussels, as we have said many times, that under the new Hungarian government, there will be the same clear and strict rules in Hungary regarding the protection of our external borders, because these are not only Hungary's borders, but also the Union's external borders, the external borders of the Schengen zone. There will be no migrant camps in Hungary. Orbán and his people planned such camps with secret decrees, but they didn't have time to implement them. And unlike Viktor Orbán, I don't know how much this was known here in Brussels, Viktor Orbán during his government released 2,200 convicted human traffickers from Hungarian prisons. Viktor Orbán released human traffickers from Hungarian prisons who had attempted or even succeeded in bringing masses of illegal migrants into the European Union. That's how committed a fighter he was against illegal migration. The failed prime minister cited high prison overcrowding in Hungary. I am sending him a message from Brussels here that he doesn't need to worry, because under the new Hungarian government, there will be no prison overcrowding in Hungary. If necessary, we will build new prisons, and we will not release either political criminals or human traffickers from Hungarian prisons. That is what I can say. Thank you very much.
