| The Foreign Minister said that the special nature of this year’s conference of mission leaders was that several broad – horizontal - issues stood at the centre of discussions; in other words issues were not discussed on a region-by-region basis. Kinga Göncz reported on details of the three-day working conclave at a government spokesman’s briefing. She added that the heads of 115 missions abroad - ambassadors and consul-generals - came home with the aim of reviewing their experiences of the past year, to assess further challenges as well as the tasks ahead. The main guest speaker was the head of Portuguese diplomacy, Foreign Minister Luis Amado. He pointed out Portugal had closed 2007 with a very successful European Union presidency by creating the technical conditions for, among other things, the expansion of the Schengen system and the signing of the Lisbon Treaty. Othere guest speakers were Andrea Ricci, the head of the EU Crisis Management Centre and László Kovács, former Hungarian foreign minister who is a member now of the European Commission in charge tax and customs affairs. Ms Göncz told journalists that, among the main spheres of issues, energy security should be put among the first, including the mutual influence of hydrocarbons and rising food prices. She said it was important that the heads of missions should be familiar with the Hungarian standpoint. In this regard they were given information on how the Hungarian Nabucco envoy was persuading the governments and companies concerned of the earliest possible actions. Equally, security policy is exceptionally timely, within this the situation and aspirations of the European Union as well as NATO, and Hungary’s roles undertaken in, among other areas, the Western Balkans and Afghanistan. A key issue is Hungary’s 2011 European Union presidency for which the selection of staff was in full swing. Ms Göncz welcomed that there had been a five-party agreement in connection with the preparations and, with the participation of the other two joint presidents, Spain and Belgium, ever more priorities were being delineated. With regard to the subject of the Lisbon Treaty discussed at the conference, she evaluated that the Irish rejection represented a suspension; however Hungary regards organisational changes, deeper integration and further expansion as necessary constituents for a more effective and efficient Europe. Hungarian minorities living beyond the border - the minister said - must be supported in two different ways: on the one hand they should receive help in preserving their identity and on the other they should thrive in their birthplaces, which fundamentally means development support. In this connection she noted that in international development co-operation Hungary has clearly become a donor country, something which must be taken into consideration in the way we regard ourselves. Likewise, there is a new thread in the practice of Hungarian foreign policy: supporting democratic efforts by making accessible experiences of our transformation to other countries. She noted that in the future embassies would have to incorporate this viewpoint into their work. Outlining the past year’s major successes, Ms Göncz mentioned joining the Schengen system and resuming visa-free status with Canada, adding that discussions were progressing very well on introducing visa-free travel for Hungarians visiting the United States, too. In October, the U.S. will examine the proportion of rejected visa applications processed by the embassy in Budapest. In the meantime meetings are taking place between Washington and the European Commission on the exchange of data with regard to fighting terrorism, which is expected to affect the community’s database, too. A further task is that the U.S. side must assemble a comprehensive IT system for checks in a timely manner; though, as Ms Göncz noted, it does not look as if there would be a delay In Hungarian entry in the Visa Waiver Program, particularly since the Bush administration has clearly made it a political resolution. In conclusion, the head of Hungarian diplomacy confirmed to the foreign representatives that there would be more to do in the future in reaching economic policy goals and attracting investors. She enthusiastically welcomed already apparent successes in this area, for example the fact that Daimler-Benz Corporation of Germany has chosen Kecskemét as the site of its new car plant while Budapest is to headquarter the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. (July 4, 2008) |