What should the EU recommend to Hungary?

With the involvement of NGOs engaged in the topic, work out detailed action plan immediately for the significant rollback of corruption, and carry it out. Among others, this should be recommended to the government of Hungary by the EU – wrote Clean Air Action Group (CAAG) in its report for the European Commission.

The Brussels-based Green Budget Europe, as in previous years, made proposals for the country-specific recommendations of 2016 - for 23 EU countries by now. (The EU prepares country-specific recommendations every year for each member state. Their purpose is the facilitation of budgetary and economic reforms, which serve financial stability, the boost of the economy and job creation.) Clean Air Action Group has been requested to make the NGO proposals for the recommendations concerning Hungary.

According to the opinion of CAAG, the EU should urge Hungary to prepare an action plan with concrete measures and deadlines to ensure implementation of all recommendations of “Guideline 5: Improving resource efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases” of the Council Recommendation of 13 July 2010 on broad guidelines for the economic policies of the Member States and of the Union (2010/410/EU). According to this Council Recommendation, the member states should form their economic policy in a way that will result in the saving of natural resources and the reduction of greenhouse gas emission. Among others it is needed to remove the enormous direct and hidden subsidies, which the state grants for car and truck traffic and for air transport. In order to achieve this, a detailed and enforceable action plan should be developed.

The expansion of control bodies and control authorities is also urgent – especially, because in the last twelve years these authorities have been weakened to such an extent that they are not capable anymore to perform their tasks prescribed by legislation.

The transparency and substantiation of legislation and economic regulation must be improved. For this purpose, analyses should be made, and the participation the NGOs engaged in the topic should be strengthened for. This is all the more compelling, as great retrogression has occurred in these fields in the last four years.

The package of proposals compiled by Green Budget Europe can be found at: http://green-budget.eu/2016-country-specific-recommendations-in-support-of-the-european-semester-process/