Gergely Gulyás, Head of the Prime Minister's Office, said Hungary had until midnight on Monday to respond to the European Commission’s questions concerning its conditionality mechanism procedure.
Gulyás said the government and the EC have been engaged in “intensive consultations”, holding talks on a daily basis over the last two weeks. The government has sent the commission a response that establishes a common position on all of the EC’s recommendations, Gulyás said. He expressed hope that the conditionality procedure could be concluded and Hungary and the EC could sign the agreement on funding from the bloc’s recovery fund and seven-year budget. He also expressed hope that the “constructive attitude that characterised the EC in the past month” would be maintained. Answering a question concerning the recent dismissal of the national weather service (OMSZ) leaders, Gulyás said the government had “accepted and supported” a proposal by Technology and Industry Minister László Palkovics. He said “changes in management positions would have been made irrespective of (OMSZ’s) forecast” for the August 20 national holiday, which had “proven spectacularly wrong”. The dismissals were due to “long-term dissatisfaction”, he said, and insisted that the forecast, which had caused the August 20 fireworks to be postponed, had been “not the last but the one after the last drop”. He also said that there was no political pressure on OMSZ staff.
Photo credit: MTI