This year, for the second time, Hungary holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union in a challenging period. The experts of the Ministry of Finance are prepared for one of the important tasks of the Hungarian presidency, the preparation of the EU budget for 2025, and we will also pay great attention to the EU’s competitiveness and demographic challenges – said Mihály Varga, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance (PM), after receiving Thomas Westphal in his office. the Director General of the Council of the European Union.
The minister emphasized that during the Hungarian presidency, answers must be found to increase the competitiveness of the European Union. As he said: the Union is constantly losing its competitiveness against global competitors, the process accelerated during the epidemic and the war.
The Hungarian EU Presidency will therefore place great emphasis on European competitiveness in order to significantly reduce the growth and innovation gap between the Union and its competitors.
Mihály Varga stated:
“we want to pay special attention to demographic problems, which can fundamentally determine the future of the continent, reversing unfavorable population trends is one of the biggest challenges today. This is why the government is committed to supporting families: the Hungarian family support system is successful, and within the European Union, the Hungarian family support ratio is the highest compared to GDP”.
As he put it: according to the Hungarian point of view, the Union must assume greater responsibility for Europe’s security, defense spending must be increased, and border protection must be strengthened. In addition to ongoing war conflicts, migration pressure is also gradually increasing, which must not be managed, but stopped, and the EU’s role needs to be increased due to this.
The parties also agreed on the reform of the customs union, under the Hungarian presidency a new EU customs authority and customs data center could be established, which could respond to the new challenges of e-commerce, explained the announcement of the Ministry of Finance.
