#Europe - Hungarian presidency claims to have achieved its goals in the half year pushing towards increased competitiveness

[financial] The Hungarian Presidency have attained its goals in telecommunications, and the close cooperation with other EU institutions have played a key role in our successes, emphasised Zsolt Nyitrai, Minister of State for Info-communications of the Ministry of National Development, when evaluating the Hungarian Presidency’s term, before the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

In the field of telecommunications, the Presidency’s primary slogan was strategy, referring to the implementation of the European Digital Agenda. “The Agenda is one of the flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, a major contribution to the EU’s competitiveness”, Minister of State Zsolt Nyitrai told MEPs. He recalled that the Presidency has put the matter on the agenda during a business lunch on 27 May, and Ministers have stood by the need for speeding up the Digital Agenda’s implementation. The participants also discussed the development on the European single market of digital services and also the measures to achieve the EU’s goal, in order to provide all EU citizens with broadband internet access by 2013.

Spectrum policy and network security

Mr Nyitrai said one of the most important tasks for the near future will be to reach an agreement on the Radio Spectrum Policy Program, which provides a basis for the EU’s frequency strategy, as “the Hungarian Presidency have managed to bring the matter close to a consensus.” Mr Nyitrai advocated an early agreement. “Europe cannot fall behind in this field: we should reach an agreement on this programme as soon as possible,” he said. The Minister of State went to great lengths to emphasise the importance of spectrum policy for the EU’s competitiveness.

“In Europe, nearly all citizens have mobile phones and personal computers. Our lives are connected by networks, which manages sensitive data and information,” Mr Nyitrai pointed out, stating the importance of network security. The Minister of State gave examples of the need for cooperation, “In some cases, a loss of data was caused by an attack or accident; in other cases, access was restricted for political reasons.” Accordingly, it has been a priority goal for the Hungarian Presidency to eliminate the uncertainty around the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), which is supposed to promote security, Mr Nyitrai underlined. The Agency’s mandate has been successfully extended by 18 months, and the next important step will be its modernisation. To this end, the Hungarian Presidency have already started to work on this, the Minister of State said.

The Minister of State recalled that the Presidency have organised a Ministerial conference in Balatonfüred, in April, where participants discussed Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP).

Global navigation and cooperation with the EP

Mr Nyitrai also mentioned that the European satellite navigation system’s periodical revision was performed during the Hungarian Presidency’s term, and a draft decision was made on government services related to the Galileo global navigation satellite system. The Minister of State asked the European Parliament (EP) Committee to back the draft decision at the vote.

At the hearing in Brussels, the MEPs spoke highly of the Hungarian Presidency’s results and its close cooperation with the EP. President of the Committee Herbelt Reul, highlighted that it was good to work with the Hungarian Presidency, which reconciled dissenting views remarkably well.