| The Foreign Ministry is to report to the Parliamentary parties on May 6 on the government’s preparations for Hungary’s presidency of the EU taking place in 2011. State Secretary and European Director Gábor Iván noted that it is almost the only such project on which there is a five-party consensus in the Hungarian parliament - everyone concerned has recognised that the task of the six-month presidency will provide a huge challenge for the country and therefore co-operation is required. Besides selecting staff, planning the budget, communication tasks, image-building and logistical concerns, the presidential group must pay attention to the preparation of the political programme, too. The programme will not last for 6 months but for a year and a half in that Hungary will assume the presidency alongside Spain and Belgium, co-presiding with the former in the first six months of 2010 and with the latter in the second half before taking control in the first half of 2011. Its content is exceptionally important because the period leads up to the beginning of debates over the new post-2013 financial perspective as well as a renewal of the Lisbon Strategy, too, which draws to the end of its current cycle in 2010. The special significance of Hungary’s preparations is that the Council will comprise 28 members since Croatia definitely will be taking part in sessions from 2011, either as a full-fledged member or as an observer. This week the ministries already will be able to promulgate the first round of nominations of those leaders and experts who are to represent Hungary in the 274 advisory working groups. For the operational back office of these groups there will be a staff of 520 people and there will be a further 260 people busy with co-ordinating work within the ministries themselves as well as between the ministries, and on protocol-related tasks. Further, there will be almost 400 ministry personnel helping to bring about decisions on individual expert issues, with individual projects distributed among them. If there happens to remain a position for which the ministries cannot name competent experts, then after the end of May there will be a second round of nominations in which leaders can be nominated from the entire public administration stable. In this first round, only those who are currently involved in Union-related jobs were nominated. In response to an article in the April 24 issue of “Világgazdaság” with the title “EU presidency: we are badly prepared”, Gábor Iván said that there is no question of a slippage and Hungary can stick to the pace determined earlier. He added that there was a strict government decree which ensures that members of the leadership group must pay back the cost of their training if for a reason within their competence they fail to take up a position. But this only applies to exceptional cases when disciplinary proceedings are launched against a team member or someone is fired, he added. Mr Iván brought attention to the fact that the government decree does not just include disciplinary action but the possibility of presidency allowances and bonuses. In connection with the extra work required for the tasks of the presidency, extra money will be available every six months for this purpose. (April 29, 2008) |