Utility price reduction statement approved by Parliament

Hungary’s Parliament on Monday approved a political statement on defending reductions in utility bills; the statement was submitted by lawmakers of the ruling Fidesz party in response to what they called pressure by the European Union bureaucracy to amend the related legislation.
The statement was approved with by a vote of 279-7 with two abstentions.
“Hungary’s Parliament considers this pressure as a move favoring public utility firms that fear a loss of profit, and rejects it most resolutely,” the statement read in part. “Parliament calls on Hungary’s government to resist bureaucratic pressure by the European Union, defend Hungary’s rights as defined in the basic treaties and resolutely continue the policy of reducing household utility bills.”
The four MPs who submitted the statement argued that community law did in no form prohibit the government from setting public utility prices, a practice applied in 18 out of 28 EU member states. Parliament rejects all efforts to extend community law to new areas without amending the treaties that created the EU, they said.
Earlier this month, government spokesman András Giró-Szász confirmed that the government had received a letter from Brussels concerning the scheme to cut utility prices.
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