Issues
Hungary has an obligation to defend the Schengen borders
Protecting the external border of the EU remains essential to maintaining security and the freedom of movement in the Schengen Area
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Referendum on EU’s Mandatory Quota System: New Unity and Changes to the Fundamental Law
More than 3.36 million Hungarians voted “no” in the October 2nd referendum on the EU’s proposed quota system, an overwhelming 98 percent voting in favor of the government’s position that...
Issues
Referendum on EU’s Mandatory Migrant Resettlement Scheme
Hungary will hold a popular referendum on October 2nd, 2016 on the so-called quota package, the plan whereby the European Union could relocate an unlimited number of migrants to the...
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Strong Borders, No Quotas: Putting European Interests First in the Migration Crisis
The situation in numbers: Between January and October 2015, 1.2 million migrants crossed a European border illegally and more than 391 thousand travelled via the western Balkans route, passing through...
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Putting Families at the Core: the Family Housing Support Program (CSOK)
In an effort to support families with children and counter negative demographic trends, the Hungarian government announced the innovative Family Housing Allowance Program, or CSOK, which would offer up to 20 million HUF of assistance per family, specifically toward home ownership. Together with a significant reduction in the value-added tax rate on newly built homes, cutting it from 27 to 5 percent, the program offers considerable financial assistance to young couples to become homeowners.
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Stability, growth, jobs: The Hungarian model of economic recovery
In 2010, Hungarian voters went to the polls looking for change. Eight years of mismanagement of the economy by socialist-liberal governments left the country badly exposed in the financial crisis. Consumer confidence had collapsed, unemployment and the debt to GDP ratio was on the rise and so too was social instability and extremism.
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The Paks Nuclear Power Plant in Hungary
In order to decrease its dependence on imported energy, Hungary aims to diversify its energy imports and increase the share of energy generated domestically. Nuclear energy presents an indispensable option to generate cheap energy, and the project to sustain capacity at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant will ensure that Hungary’s dependence on imported natural gas will not increase in the future.
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How Hungary Eliminated Foreign Exchange Loans and Averted a Crisis
Parallel to the Greek sovereign debt crisis, another debt crisis has threatened the EU. The Swiss National Bank’s decision in January 2015 to abandon the exchange-rate cap against the euro, sending shock waves through several central European countries. Following the decision, the value of the Swiss franc jumped, trading on average at a rate 20 percent higher against central European currencies. The dramatic increase shook the mortgage markets, touching hundreds of thousands of families in the region.
Issues
The Case of the Norway Grants and NGOs in Hungary
Since 2004, Hungary has been a recipient of a program called the EEA and Norway Grants, financial contributions offered by Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein intended to strengthen bilateral relations and reduce economic and social disparities in certain EU countries.
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Reducing Utility Prices
“Take the reduction of household utility bills. It had been universally accepted that there can be no such thing: household utility bills cannot be reduced, they can only be increased. We said that this is not impossible, we would do it – and we did it.” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, January 14, 2016
Issues
Making Family a Top Priority
Since taking office in 2010, the Orbán Government has pursued policy that gives priority to families as the core of Hungarian society in both economic and cultural terms.