Varga conveys govt comments on EC prelim report on Hungary

Brussels, April 15 (MTI) – Economy Minister Mihaly Varga held talks in Brussels on Tuesday with Jonathan Hill, EU commissioner for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union.

The talks addressed the European Commission’s country specific recommendations as well as a proposal for a union of capital markets.

Varga told MTI over the phone after the meeting that he urged Brussels to give more credit for the impact of structural reforms on economic growth when preparing its report on Hungary. He added that he had also conveyed the Hungarian government’s comments on the preliminary report, published in March, in which several items had been found to be missing. In February, Hungary came to an agreement with the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the implementation of which is under way. “This is something that was also missing from the document,” the minister said. As part of the accord, the government has undertaken to reduce the bank levy in the interest of stoking lending. The cabinet is expected to approve this measure in the first half of this year, he said, adding that the tax would change on January 1, 2016 at the earliest. He noted that another part of the EBRD agreement undertook the government to pursue closer cooperation on matters affecting the financial sector.

Sectors that are sustainable and provide stable jobs should receive support, and the government will work together with certain sectors over the long term on their Hungarian operations and their sharing of the tax burden. “Sectors that were profitable during the period of the crisis and did less to participate in the sharing of the public burden have been drawn into the system of special taxes,” he said.