President János Áder met his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Athens on Saturday to discuss cohesion funds in the next EU budgetary period and German investments in Hungary.
Following a Arraiolos group meeting in Greece’s capital city, President Áder said the two leaders were in agreement that the EU’s cohesion funds should continue to serve their original purpose of developing disadvantaged regions. There are 20 such regions in the whole of the EU, four of them in Hungary, he said. “Therefore we cannot give up on receiving from EU development funds,” the President said.
According to MTI, the President said the proposals on funding in the next EU budgetary cycle would affect most unfavorably the least developed member states and regions and cannot therefore be considered fair.
The Friends of Cohesion group, formed by 14 EU countries, will seek to change the current financial proposals at every forum, he said, adding that at their talks German investments in Hungary were also discussed.
German companies prefer to invest in Hungary because they consider it to be a predictable country in terms of economic regulations. “The German intention and objective is clear: maintaining this process in the coming years,” the President said.
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