Hungarian minister Nagy: EU must be saved before it dies

Hungary believes in boosting competence, and sees this as the European Union’s opportunity to rise, but the resources necessary for a turnaround are lacking at the level of the EU, National Economy Minister Márton Nagy said at a conference evaluating Hungary’s EU presidency in Budapest on Monday.

Nagy said the EU “must be saved before it dies,” as its economy cannot compete with the United States and China under the current circumstance.

It is estimated that EUR 700bn-800bn are missing for investments for the digital and green transition at the EU level, and there will not be enough money as long as financing is limited by fiscal discipline, he said. There is no need for “fiscal alcoholism,” but the EU should reform its financing rules as the initial costs of the digital and green transition are high, and in order to achieve structural transformation, “the money taps must be opened”, channeling new funding to the right places. Europe must therefore decide whether it considers competitiveness or deficit targets to be more important, he said.

Instead of investments, the EU was financing the war in Ukraine while the United States and China were continuously investing into industries with high added value, Nagy said. He said the EU was already lagging behind in artificial intelligence, it may have a future in space industry, but the automotive industry could be the real breakthrough point. However, there is not a single community directive addressing e-mobility and the electric vehicle market has also stalled in Europe, Nagy said.

The minister said the next six-to-eight weeks could bring important changes as the change of the US president and the German election could also be of decisive importance from Hungary’s perspective.

Demján Sándor Programme to boost investments due to start on January 23

More than 6,500 entrepreneurs have registered for the Demján Sándor Programme for scaling up SMEs in the past five weeks, which shows that enterprises do have plans to launch investments and purchase new assets and the government wants to support them, state secretary for SME development and technology Richárd Szabados said on Facebook on Monday.

The funding documents are expected to be issued in the spring, Szabados said.