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German's E.ON to launch Hungarian power plant construction.
 The German-based energy group E.ON plans to launch
the construction of a new power plant in Hungary this September,
according to Istvan Bakacs, member of the board at E.ON in Hungary.
 He said that the plant is slated to have a 400 Megawatts
capacity and E.ON plans to acquire another license
to construct an additional
400 Megawatts capacity in Hungary. The new plants
would be powered by natural gas that would be supplied
through the natural gas trading
subsidiary of E.ON in Hungary. Based
on preliminary calculations the cost of the project
is estimated to cost about EUR 270 million.
Bakacs said E.ON move comes after an increasing
demand for power in Hungary and the region, which
at the current rates may see a shortage
of 3,000 Megawatts shortage in the energy balance
in Hungary by the year 2020.
Hungarian President to hold
talks on budgeting rules
 Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom has announced
that he is ready to meet
political leaders of Hungary's five parliamentary
parties and discuss the
required amendments to rules of the central budget.
He added that his initiative
hopes and make public finances more transparent
and predictable. Solyom has invited the party heads
to meet and agree on safeguards
to budgeting rules that would survive alternating
government cycles, regardless of which party is ruling. Solyom
says he will personally refrain from offering his
own position on budgeting
issues (Solyom politically stands closer to the opposition
parties - Hungarian Civic Alliance or Fidesz and
Hungarian Democrats).
 The president said that his aim is to maintain constitutional
limits among the different parties so that Hungary
can overcome any alternating
periods where governments may overspend. Socialist
Party member and Finance Minister Janos Veres welcomed Solyom's
initiative. He said, his Finance Ministry has also
targeted more stringent
and transparent budgetary rules, including a planned"
independent" budget office and capping the spending
ceilings for the different
ministries funded by the central budget, alias the tax-payers.
Civic Party pledges to derail
health care privatization
 Hungary's main opposition party Hungarian
Civic Alliance (Fidesz) has pledged to use
every legal means to derail the current government's privatization
of the health-care system, according to Fidesz deputy chairman
Zoltan Pokorni. he said that if Fidesz won the up-coming election
it would abort any laws passed by the current government allowing
multiple health insurers to enter the market. Fidesz
claims that such insurers would divide
the state-owned health insurance fund into
sub-regional health funds financed in tandem by private
funds.
 Pokorni says Fidesz wants a referendum
on the latest government reforms. Pokorni
did not rule out demonstrations or hospital strikes. Pokorni
said that a ruling Fidesz government would terminate
contracts with all private health insurance
funds and reinstate the current system.
The
current system's main backlash, according to Fidesz,
is the lack of funds as the current
government plans to "unlawfully" reduce
health spending by as much as HUF 250 billion (EUR
977 million). The ruling government party
MSzP party's health expert and spokesperson
Mihaly Kokeny however believes that Fidesz had misunderstood
the government's plans as the current government
has no intention of privatizing the social
insurance (Tb) system but rather include
a common insurer that is composed of multiple funds
in which private investors could also
acquire a minority stake. He argued Fidesz is trying to repel foreign investors.
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