LIVE: Hungarian PM Peter Magyar Meets EU Chief Ursula von der Leyen | AC1Z

Weeks ago, a new Hungarian government was formed and we have achieved already a historic breakthrough agreement, really, really important for the Hungarian people, for my beloved country, Hungary. Hungarian 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 is hopeless.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear Hungarian compatriots! One of our most important commitments in the election campaign was that we would bring home, unlock the thousands of billions of HUF in EU funding that is due to Hungarian people, Hungarian companies, Hungarian public services, healthcare, education, transport, and the social sector. We listened for a long time to the previous government about why things couldn't be done. 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 Union wouldn't give the thousands of billions of HUF due to Hungarian people because Hungary, a different Hungarian government, holds a different position on illegal immigrants, the Russian-Ukrainian war, or certain human rights issues. I, and I myself during the election campaign, clearly stated that the real reason why European institutions, the European Union, were not in a position to give this hundreds 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 or 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 accepted the anti-corruption measures together with the Commission and the measures mentioned by the President. And that was enough, and a few weeks were enough for us to agree, to reach a political agreement on this huge amount of EU funds. Three weeks, three or four weeks were enough for what Viktor Orbán and his previous 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. We will see in a few decades where he belongs.

Please, we agreed with the President, we agreed with the European Commission on all the issues, as mentioned there, that will enable Hungarian people to access the funds they are entitled to. On April 12th, as the President also mentioned, 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 kickstart the Hungarian economy, the Hungarian economy that has been unable to grow for four years, the economy where Europe's highest inflation was, where we are fighting every day to prevent public services from collapsing. We are bringing these funds home, as promised, for the reconstruction of Hungary, to kickstart the economy, to restore and develop public services, to strengthen the competitiveness of Hungarian companies, small and medium-sized enterprises. Our goal has always been clear, both in informal and official negotiations. We negotiated very hard. The President can perhaps confirm this. We fought for every euro cent, as I indicated at the beginning, that we need the whole amount.

Ind. Inded. Okay. Thanks and sorry for that. So we negotiated hard even last night, and then started 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 say this to our compatriots, this is 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 laughs, the other cries, 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 kickstart the economy, if it had really wanted to develop the collapsing Hungarian healthcare system, if it had really wanted to buy new railway 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 we might even exceed the Commission's expectations in this regard. We will adopt anti-corruption measures that are stricter than the requests in several places. And I indeed had the honor 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 depend on us.

Please, what we have partially reformed, the President mentioned, and I don't want to repeat too much of it, but what is important is that we accepted the reform of the asset declaration system, because the current asset declaration system was good for nothing. It didn't even reveal that one of Orbán's ministers, who claimed to be an inventor and thus earn huge revenues annually, couldn't 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 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. It's 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 towards corruption. We will eliminate the opportunities for power to bypass public assets into its own hands, or to its 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 projects and investments that have already been realized or are in the process of realization. I look at the Finance Minister, András Kármán, whose face immediately lights up with a smile, because this 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. We are talking about almost 4 billion euros here. In addition, we can allocate one and a half billion euros, almost 600 billion HUF, for 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 the Hungarian population, 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 will also be able to 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 allocate almost 2 billion euros for the procurement of new railway trains, new trains, local railway trains. This will be a huge step forward, especially compared to the previous government and János Lázár, who destroyed Hungarian transport, and who instead of procuring new railway trains, leased 30-year-old trains, which are the ones catching fire now, leased by the previous government. We decided instead, with the help of the European Union, to buy new railway trains. This will be visible soon, dear Minister, on Hungarian intercity lines and in Budapest's public transport within a few years. 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. This includes grants and a loan component. Overall, I say 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, with 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 means not only 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'll be honest, there will probably be a question on this, so maybe I'll 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 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 lot of legislation, but the good news is that today Hungary has the most stable government in the entire European Union. I believe we hold 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 suspected 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 work together with great joy for the future of Hungary and the European Union, for competitiveness. Thank you very much, Madam President.

Good afternoon. 10.4.4 billion Hungarian envelope. Second, migration. That is million daily. On this topic, because the previous government didn't, well, did those which are against the EU legislation. So I was wondering when and how you intend to change Hungarian legislation regarding the refugee status? Thank you.

Thank you very much. I will also answer quickly. The President mentioned the numbers, so I won't repeat them. Obviously, there is a breakdown, I also tried to mention 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 appointed 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 they didn't like it, if they didn't consider it useful. They failed. Viktor Orbán has achieved practically nothing in recent years, because he vetoed just to veto, 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 might have been 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 quite 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 includes tightenings in many areas, more effective protection of Europe's external borders. And what they usually talk about in the 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 a new 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 can't even take that, either due to their constitutional setup or political will, can provide assistance to EU member states for the protection of the EU's external borders. This is what it's about, which, by the way, was decided with Viktor Orbán's vote and the Orbán government's vote, 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 just as 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 things, by the way, 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 released 2,200 convicted human traffickers from Hungarian prisons during his government. Viktor Orbán released human traffickers from Hungarian prisons who attempted, or even succeeded, in bringing masses of illegal migrants into the territory of the European Union. That's how committed a fighter he was against illegal migration. The ousted prime minister cited the high prison overcrowding in Hungary. I also send him a message from Brussels: 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.

Freedom TV channel. For the President, how are negotiations with Ukraine on opening the first cluster for EU accession progressing? And during the negotiation, did you link the release of EU funds for Hungary to the opening of clusters in negotiation with Ukraine? And for the Prime Minister, are you satisfied with the Ukrainian proposal regarding guarantees for Ukrainian Hungarians? And when do you expect to have a meeting with the Ukrainian President, and will we see a new chapter in Ukraine-Hungary relationship without the previous veto policy on a lot of decisions in support of Ukraine? Thank you.