Márton Nagy, Minister of National Economy, held talks with Nicolas Schmit, the European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, in Budapest on Thursday.
According to MTI, Nagy briefed the commissioner on the situation in the Hungarian labor market and key employment policy issues. He emphasized that, due to demographic and structural changes, the management of the labor shortage was currently the biggest employment policy challenge in the EU, adding that the government focused on mobilising internal workforce reserves. The goal is to raise the activity rate of 15-64-year-olds from the current 78% to 85% in the long term, Nagy said. This will be helped by the GINOP Plusz program, through which the government will spend 460 billion forints (1.19bn) to boost the activity rate and employment. The sides also discussed the issue of the regulation of the rapidly growing digital platform economy. The commissioner thanked Nagy for Hungary’s support and cooperation in negotiating the latest draft directive, and Nagy emphasized that, from the beginning, Hungary had strived to create a balanced regulation that takes into account the needs of the economy as well.