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SZIJJÁRTÓ CALLS ON EU TO LIFT BAN ON FINANCING

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has renewed his call on the European Union to remove its restrictions on state investment subsidies.
 

After a videoconference of the Visegrad Group plus the Nordic-Baltic Eight group of countries, Szijjártó said on Facebook that job creation hinged on new investments. With a view to saving jobs, the Hungarian government has supported 806 Hungarian companies from a fund of 170 billion forints (EUR 491m) while staying below the EU’s cap of 800,000 euros per project, he said, calling for the cap to be removed before year-end.
Members states should be allowed to freely finance projects from their national budget, he said, adding that saving jobs and creating new ones should be the focus of European policymaking.
On another subject, Szijjártó said that European countries had been “in a vulnerable position” when “everybody was queuing up” to buy medical equipment from China during the coronavirus crisis. He said this should be borne in mind when shaping Europe’s China policy. “Cooperation must be pragmatic and mutual,” Szijjártó said, adding that applying double standards, whereby big countries benefit from cooperation with China at the expense of small countries, should be avoided.