“Without cooperation and solidarity between the Member States of the European Union, crises that appear at a global level cannot be handled”, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture said at a meeting of Visegrád Group agriculture ministers.
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture spoke about the courage and heroism of our ancestors 169 years ago and about the strength that lies in solidarity and a ceremony to commemorate the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence.
“We must protect people from food discrimination. It is unacceptable for certain multinational companies and food processing companies to marketing lower quality products in Central and Eastern Europe”, Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas said on Kossuth Radio on Wednesday morning.
“In addition to the countries of the Visegrád Group (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, the V4), Romania and Bulgaria may also take action with regard to the dual quality of food within the European Union”, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Minister of Sate for Food Chain Supervision Róbert Zsigó said on Hungarian M1 television’s Monday evening current affairs program.
The National Sustainable Development Council and the Hungarian Association of Conservationists organised a conference entitled “The Realisation of Sustainable Development Goals in Hungary” on 7 February in the Upper House conference room of the Hungarian Parliament Building, which was attended by over 400 people.
“There is a never before seen level of funding resources available for environmental protection and conservation in Hungary. A budget of 3540 billion forints (EUR 11.5bn) is available for this purpose within the European Union’s current programming period, which lasts until 2020, for instance to fund energy-efficient technologies, agro-environmental management and the protection of aquatic habitats”, the Minister of Agriculture said on M1 Hungarian television and Kossuth Radio’s Wednesday morning current affairs program.
Slovakia and Hungary will be submitting a joint proposal calling for a debate on the dual quality of foods within the European Union and for the development of the legal instruments required to prevent this, at the upcoming session of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 6 March.
At a press conference on 20 February in Budapest, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Minister of State for Food Chain Supervision Róbert Zsigó announced that Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas has ordered another comprehensive analysis of similar products available in both Hungarian and foreign retail stores. The National Food Chain Safety Office (NFCSO) has already begun the task.
“Greater emphasis must be placed on research, innovation, cross-border cooperation and joint action by the region within the biomass-based economy, in the interests of assuring the further sustainable growth of agriculture and the facilitation of knowledge-based development”, Zsolt Feldman said at the BIOEAST conference, which was jointly organised by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Research Institute of Agricultural Economics and the National Chamber of Agricultural Economics on 21-22 February in Budapest.
This year’s Biofach in Nuremberg, which has a 28-year history and is Europe’s most important organic products expo, was visited by 50 thousand people from 134 countries, who viewed the stands of 2785 exhibitors from 88 countries. The Hungarian National Stand organised by the Agricultural Marketing Centre (AMC), also performed outstandingly at the event, which was held from 15-18 February.