Hungary govt submits omnibus bill; visa ban for foreign workers sparks debate<\/p>\n
The government submitted<\/a> a major legislative package aimed at meeting the EU\u2019s 27 \u201csuper milestones\u201d \u2013 a prerequisite for unlocking Hungary\u2019s frozen EU funds. The 110-page omnibus bill focuses on anticorruption measures. It would strengthen the powers of the Integrity Authority, Hungary\u2019s anti-graft watchdog (whose current president is himself under investigation<\/a> for allegedly misappropriating almost 400,000 euros), tighten asset declaration rules for public officials and strengthen oversight of public funds to prevent the conspicuous enrichment of politicians. Omissions or false statements in asset declarations could be punishable by up to two years in prison. The new rules would apply to all political leaders whose parties receive public funding, including Viktor Orban, who is no longer an MP but is expected to be re-elected Fidesz chairman on Saturday. The legislation also targets the public-interest trust funds established by the previous government to restructure universities. These entities would be brought back under state control. The Fidesz-linked Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), which maintains an influential branch in Brussels, would also lose public funding. PM Peter Magyar said that \u201cif its founder, Andras Tombor, has enough money, he can continue financing it privately.\u201d The package is expected to be debated in parliament next week.<\/p>\n Magyar also indicated that parliament could skip its traditional summer recess because of tight deadlines and the scale of the new government\u2019s legislative agenda. Hungary also managed to submit its revised Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) plan to Brussels at the last possible moment to retain access to post-pandemic EU funds. \u201cWe literally worked 24 hours a day,\u201d Transport and Investment Minister David Vitezy told<\/a> 444.hu. He said the plan was submitted only minutes before the midnight deadline on June 9.<\/p>\n In line with a campaign pledge, the Tisza government has banned new work visas for foreign workers. While the previous Fidesz government maintained a tough stance on migration, it nevertheless admitted workers from selected \u2013 primarily Christian \u2013 countries to ease labour shortages. Foreign workers in Hungary currently amount<\/a> to between 2.0 and 2.5 per cent of the workforce, mainly in hospitality, manufacturing and food services. Tisza has opted to take an even stricter approach. It believes Hungary still has untapped labour reserves, particularly in the country\u2019s north and east, which should be mobilised before relying on foreign labour. Hungary\u2019s current unemployment<\/a> rate is 4.5 per cent. The issue is controversial. Employers argue that the domestic workforce is either insufficiently mobile or lacks the skills needed in many industries. Laszlo Barany, owner of food-processing company Master Good, recently warned that his company might halt construction of a new factory if it cannot recruit enough workers. \u201cWe do not employ foreigners because they are cheaper; we employ them because there are no Hungarians left,\u201d Barany said<\/a>, arguing that Hungary must face up to its demographic decline. The population is expected to fall below 9 million as the large generations born in the 1970s reach retirement age. Magyar retorted<\/a> by noting that Master Good had received billions of forints in government support under previous Fidesz administrations \u201cto create work opportunities for Hungarians\u201d. He also suggested the company was underpaying Hungarian workers while relying on foreign labour to suppress wages. Labour market experts questioned that line of argument, noting that employing foreign workers is overall more expensive than hiring Hungarians once transport, accommodation and administrative costs are taken into account. However, they acknowledge many guest workers are willing to accept longer shifts and tougher conditions, making them attractive to employers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungary govt submits omnibus bill; visa ban for foreign workers sparks debate The government submitted a major legislative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[857,210,354,323,9,126,1093,127],"class_list":["post-11517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-czech-republic","tag-eu","tag-hungary","tag-nato","tag-poland","tag-russia","tag-slovakia","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}