Government signs strategic agreement with British Telecom’s regional service centre

The agreement was signed by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and the service centre’s managing director Zoltán Szabó and HR manager Mária Grócz in Budapest.

Szijjártó said the agreement is the 67th of the strategic agreements signed by the government. British Telecom is the third biggest UK company in Hungary, which employs 2,000 people at its service centres in Budapest and Debrecen.

British Ambassador Iain Lindsay said he considers it a top priority to strengthen bilateral business relations with Hungary.

On a different subject, Szijjártó told the press after the event that the government trusts the planned referendum on migrant quotas will provide clear authorisation from the people to present a definite political position in Brussels. He criticised the European Commission’s plan to fine countries that have a different view from the Brussels institutions.

“It is completely un-European behaviour, which we reject. And we will make every effort to prevent such political solutions from becoming the backbone for decision-making mechanisms in the future,” he said.

Hungary has spent millions of euros on stopping the migrants at its borders and it was the only country to take its Schengen obligations seriously, he said. No other country, except the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, co-members of the Visegrad Group, asked Hungary what form of solidarity it needed.

“If we talk about solidarity, Brussels institutions are the least entitled to criticise us,” he said.

“Hungary does not want to exercise pressure on Brussels, but Brussels is exercising pressure on the member countries … Hungary is a sovereign country so we do not need to exercise pressure, we must clearly present our position to the European Commission and we will say it sharply and clearly; everybody can be sure about that,” he added.