The session comes after the Hungarian presidency achieved a serious success in running the talks at the preceding formal session, said state secretary in charge of environmental protection, Zoltán Illés.

After a negotiating period of two and a half years, member states have reached an agreement on raising the obligatory percentage of electronic waste materials that have to be recollected and recycled. Although the process was already underway, Illés greatly attributed the conclusion of the talks to the diplomatic prowess of Agriculture Minister Sándor Fazekas, who “excelled in playing the game”.

The state secretary likewise highlighted the recent conclusion of a five-party agreement involving the Danube, the Drave and the Mur rivers, laying out a multinational commitment to preserving the biosphere of these natural waters.

At the same time, he also stressed that Hungary is dedicated to the “green Danube” strategy as earlier declared by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. This translates to a determination to reach a level 4 on the scale of 6, meaning the Danube is suitable to accommodate aquatic commerce for limited periods of time.

Although there were calls to implement further improvements, which would have boosted the rating, the Hungarian government has no such intentions. “This would have involved dredging the riverbed, which is costly and serves only foreign interests,” Illés said. As he explained, since Hungary essentially has no fleet of its own, the related investment would only have served other countries looking to conduct commerce on the river.

Since it serves no national interests, Hungary does not support any dredging operations or the construction of dams to regulate water levels, he added. The country does, however, promote the construction of additional Danube bridges in an effort to better facilitate road freight commerce and is also looking to reorient cargo transporting businesses to make better use of the rail system.

The official predicted that one of the hot topics of the session will be genetically modified (GM) crops, something that Hungary is looking to prohibit on an EU level. Illés stressed that once these crops are introduced natural wind currents and insect migration are bound to have the artificial genes injected into regular crops’ gene pool. “According to international law, if a firm developing artificial crops can detect the genes, its intellectual property, in the produce of a neighboring farmer, then it owns it,” Illés said. He also reflected on the dual dependence that permitting these crops would entail, since GM crop producers also control the herbicides and pesticides needed to cultivate their products.

Deputy state secretary in charge of climate affairs Péter Olajos pointed out that Hungary will be looking to finalize an EU position on international climate targets laid out in Cancun that the bloc can represent at the UN summit on the issue in South Africa later in December.

“The Hungarian presidency is looking to launch the debate that will eventually lead to the complete decarbonization of the continent by 2050,” he said.

During the informal meeting, the presidency will be looking to explore various means of innovative finances that could lead to achieving this, and shorter-term goals. There will also be side events with the participation of executives of leading energy companies to discuss their obligations as well as their needs in order to contribute to the European target, Olajos said.