The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary expresses its perplexity and rejects the statement made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay on 18 June 2013. The UN High Commissioner, while welcoming the opinion issued by the Venice Commission regarding the fourth amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, made several untenable critical remarks with respect to the state of democracy in Hungary.
The parliamentary representation of ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary – which will be accomplished following the 2014 elections – will hopefully bolster Hungary's sense of responsibility for them, Parliamentary State Secretary Zsolt Németh declared in Paris on Monday.
Upon the request of Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martonyi the Venice Commission published an opinion on the Fourth Amendment to the Fundamental Law on 14 June. The CoE body after having received documents and detailed explanations from the Hungarian Government has brought several modifications to the previous draft opinion and dropped its previous negative assessment on a number of important issues.
Even from a European aspect, the Government has achieved outstanding results in the field of employment in general and women’s labour prospects in particular, Ministerial Commissioner Piroska Szalai, responsible for the improvement of women’s labour market prospects, said in Győr, at a conference organized within the framework of the Fidesz programme entitled Hungary is Doing Better.
The Hungarian government has helped more than 7,000 young people to find or retain their jobs since 2010, Bence Rétvári, State Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs at the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice said on Friday.
The National Development Agency (NDA) organised the open day of European Union development projects for the second time on 15 June 2013, at which over 60 development projects implemented within the framework of the New Széchenyi Plan were presented to the public nationally, said Nándor Csepreghy, Deputy State Secretary for Development Projects of the Ministry for National Development (MND).
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán participated in an interview at the public Kossuth Radio. Regarding the flood situation the Prime Minister declared that with unprecedented cooperation, good organization and expertise the danger could be averted and dykes were functioning well.
On June 12, Foreign Minister János Martonyi received Tomicah Tillemann, the grandson of late Congressman Tom Lantos, who serves as the Senior Advisor for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies to Secretary of State John Kerry. Mr. Tillemann was invited to Budapest by the Tom Lantos Institute to hold the first of a series of public lectures focusing on human rights.
The Ministry for National Economy is launching two new employment programmes: the Road to Your Job ("Út a szakmaválasztáshoz") scheme assists young people with social disadvantages in finding a profession, and another programme will help local governments to employ students during the summer vacation period.
Government Spokesperson András Giró-Szász announced that approximately one thousand people who have been evacuated remain in temporary accommodation, adding that two hundred people were able to return to their homes yesterday.