Austerity measures forced on Hungary harming European citizens

Austerity measures forced on Hungary is threatening the health of people and the environment in Europe, say Hungarian NGOs. Harsh cuts across public sectors, including the environmental inspectorates and other authorities, reduce them to their ‘bare bones’, unable to work effectively. 

The groups also highlight the drastically reduced support for NGOs. A recently published report of the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations states that the Hungarian Network of Eco-counselling Offices is closing its offices one after the other in the whole country due to the vanishing of funding. These offices gave advice and other help in about 40,000 cases each year, and this advisory activity related to the everyday life of several million persons.

It can be seen day by day that control over processes and products potentially harmful for people’s health is increasingly being lost in the country. One of the biggest industrial catastrophes ever in the EU occurred in Hungary in 2011. This was the red sludge spill, killing 10 persons, injuring about 150, and devastating one town and two villages. Just a few weeks before the spill, the environment inspectorate renewed the permit for the operation of the concerning red sludge reservoir without inspecting it on the site because of the lack of capacity.

In 2011, the Institute of Isotopes in Budapest was releasing for months radioactive isotopes in the air above the permitted concentration, and the Hungarian authorities started to deal with the issue only after warnings from foreign institutions that there is an increased atmospheric concentration of these isotopes in their countries, and the emission source was probably in Hungary. Plastics are being burnt illegally in households all over Hungary, emitting carcinogenic substances far above the health safety level. Dangerous agrochemicals appear from time to time in the drinking water in concentrations above the permitted limit.

“The weakening of the authorities and the elimination of important NGO services in Hungary poses a real danger to the health and safety of all European citizens. Namely, neither environmental pollution nor unhealthy and unsafe products stop at national borders,” said István Farkas,  Executive President of Friends of the Earth Hungary.

It is the Hungarian Government which is carrying out the drastic reduction of funding to bodies responsible for safeguarding our health and environment. However, it is the IMF which has been demanding serious cuts in state expenditures, and especially to trim down the public wage bill. “Indubitably, it is absolutely necessary that Hungary reduce its public debt. Nevertheless, there are much better ways to achieve this than eliminating those authorities and non-governmental services which protect our safety and health: first of all, the government should remove environmentally harmful subsidies and other kinds of state aid distorting the market,” said András Lukács, President of the Clean Air Action Group, a national federation of 123 environmental NGOs.

Before Hungary joined the European Union in 2004, the European Commission in its annual country reports each time pointed out that the Hungarian authorities do not have the necessary capacity to comply with the requirements of the EU on protecting the environment and safeguarding human health, and called upon the Hungarian government to strengthen these authorities. However, since the accession to the EU just the opposite happened. For example, the budget and staff of the national public health authority (responsible for food and water safety, and prevention of epidemics, among others) was halved between 2004 and 2008. There were substantial cutbacks also for the environment inspectorates, the plant protection service and other authorities. Since then further cuts took place: the budget of the national public health authority was reduced in real terms by 43 % between 2008 and 2011, and a further cut of 32 % occurred for 2012 in comparison with the previous year. The respective figures for environmental, nature protection and water protection authorities are 47 % and 14 %, and for the national consumer protection inspectorate 32 % and 71 %. The government just issued its decision to lay off immediately 6700 persons from these and various other state organs, including highly qualified, experienced and committed experts in the state administration, responsible for preparing governmental decisions and for international relations.