Foreword

Our budget proposals have been published each year, since 1992. Normally, the proposals are issued in autumn, however, this year has brought a change, and they are published in the spring. The reason is that the State Budget Bill was issued a month later than it had been in prior years. Therefore, we prepared a preliminary summary of the proposals first, which were published in the 10th issue of Lélegzet (a periodical edited by Clean Air Action Group) in 1998 and in issues 5 and 6 of Érdek és Érték (a periodical of the Trade Union of Culture). After this, specific proposals for modifications were sent to the relevant committees of the Parliament at later dates. So this publication includes the specific proposals for modification of the 1999 budget as well as proposals to the budget for the year 2000.

We understand that our proposals cannot be implemented from one day to the other. It takes a long while until new ways of thinking, which we represent, take root in the society, and people start to realise that human, cultural and environmental issues need to be addressed more seriously. However, none of the proposals are impossible to accomplish. At the moment we have to accept the fact that the majority of those preparing and making decisions do not share our standpoint, although, despite all conceptual disagreements and day-to-day excuses, more and more of them have started to identify themselves with our approaches and stand by our ideas to achieve sustainable development. A good sign is that the government as well as the parliament have adopted a series of our proposals over the past years, and incorporated them into the Hungarian system of legislation.

An increasing number of civil movements and interest groups, and also, government authorities, represent the principles by which our proposals are made. The European Commission in Brussels, the European Parliament, the OECD, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and other institutions also stand by those principles and reinforce them in their documents. Opinion polls in Western Europe find that people understand and support the ideas to restructure the state budget in a way that gives priority to people, culture and environmental protection. And industrial sectors are no exception either; most of the senior industry experts agree that the proposals are reasonable. (Although the most adversely effected but still powerful industries do their utmost to delay the changes as much as they can.)

Our proposals are meant to help Hungary take action to promote sustainable development.

Fundamental principles supporting our proposals have been the same from the start; specific proposals may change but most of them are ongoing and yet to be implemented. So, this document applies not only to the State Budget Bill for 1999 but also the budget concepts for the year 2000.

We are confident that implementation of our proposals would help

We are kindly requesting the support of the Reader to accomplish those goals.

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Many experts and consultants have helped us elaborate our proposals. The final version, hereby presented, has been edited and fine-tuned by the undersigned who take all responsibilities for the contents – and potential errors – of the document. We would appreciate further comments and suggestions, or any other betterment for our work in the future.

Budapest, 5 March 1999


János Vadász
 President
 Trade Union of Culture


András Lukács
President
Clean Air Action Group