BUDAPEST, April 17 – Hungary’s incoming prime minister Peter Magyar said on Friday he was about to start initial talks with EU officials in Budapest as there was no time to waste in his efforts to unblock funds frozen by the bloc over disputes with his predecessor.
Magyar, whose landslide victory in an April 12 election will end nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule, said he would kickstart the discussions by setting out points where he and the EU already agreed.
“I expect a constructive negotiation. It will not be easy because we have very little time,” he told a news conference.
He said the chief of staff of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would arrive at around 5 p.m. local time as part of a high-level delegation.
“The aim is… to map out before the new government is formed what we agree on and what are the conditions that the next parliament can pass as a law and comply with European conditions,” Magyar said.
He is aiming to take office as prime minister on May 9 or 10, depending on when the president calls the inaugural session of parliament following the election.
His centre-right Tisza party won a supermajority, giving it the power to change the judicial, public tendering and media control laws that have been at the centre of disputes between Orban’s government and Brussels.
On Friday, he told journalists he was hoping for a political agreement during his first visit to Brussels.
Markets have rallied on Magyar’s victory with hopes that the EU will unblock billions of euros of funds and help an economy at near-stagnation.
Magyar has previously outlined four key areas where his cabinet could move swiftly to avoid the loss of some 10 billion euros of EU pandemic recovery funding by an end-August deadline – including measures to battle corruption and restore media and academic freedoms.
Von der Leyen said this week after speaking with Magyar that there was swift work to be done. REUTERS