Cooperation among the Visegrád Four (V4) member states was particularly successful during the coronavirus pandemic, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said after an online conference with her Czech and Polish counterparts.
“Thanks to the timely political and economic measures, the V4 countries were successful concerning health protection,” Varga wrote in a Facebook post.
“We need to continue this coordinated action to eliminate the economic damage caused by the pandemic and to minimize its impact on the labor market. I also discussed this with my Polish and Czech fellow ministers on the phone today and informed them that the restrictions on movement have now been lifted in Budapest and that the extraordinary legal order is expected to end in June,” she wrote.
The Visegrád Four nations of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have had some of the lowest infection and death rates in all of Europe during the coronavirus crisis.
Following the loosening of restrictions in areas of Hungary and the broader Central European region two weeks ago, Hungary has on Monday lifted most the pandemic restrictions in the capital and is now concentrating its efforts to reboot the economy, keep as many jobs as possible and create new ones instead of the ones lost during the pandemic.
The country has even launched a training program for reserve military personnel, designed specifically for those aged 18 to 50 who have lost their jobs. The recruits will attend a six-month paid training, after which they will return to their civilian occupations, but for those six months they will be paid a monthly 161,000-forint (€460) salary, which is designed to tide them over the most difficult period of the economic recovery.
Defense minister Tibor Benkő said that 3,000 places are available for this year, but that number can be increased in function of actual demand.
The country’s automotive industry is back on its feet, but economic analysts say tourism could take up to one year to return to its former volume.
Title image: Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga (L) attending an online conference with her Czech and Polish counterparts. (source: Facebook)
