Although on March 13 Ecofin will approve the proposal, by that time the finance ministers would have before them Hungary's adjustments to correct the situation, he said, adding that the European Commission had already received information about the adjustments.

Hungary does not need to organise any coalition to support its cause as the European Commission's objections are of a technical nature and can be settled in half a year, he said.

Orban noted that Hungary's fundamentals were good, with only seven member states having lower deficits this year and next than Hungary. Orban added that the country's high degree of internal stability gives it an advantage over other member states from the point of view of making structural adjustments.

The government's choice of tools for putting Hungary on the right course could be a matter of debates but it is indisputable that the country is on the right course, he said. He said the mood at the summit had been positive as the ECB's recent policy of offering low interest rate loans was suitable to reaffirm trust.

From among the political issues discussed by the summit, Orban mentioned that Serbia had received the status of EU candidate member and would soon start accession talks. Hungary welcomes that Serbia has become more committed to enforcing minority rights and pursued a predictable policy in this field, he said.

Orban said it was under his proposal that the summit's conclusions concerning the "Arab Spring" had been amended with the need to protect Christian communities in the region. In a statement released on Friday, two deputies of the European People's Party urged the European Commission to be careful concerning the proposed freezing of funds.

Dutch Christian Democrat Lambert van Nistelrooij and Hungary's Tamas Deutsch warned that the fund-freeze would set a precedent of depriving some regions of crucially important development funding.

Van Nistelrooij added that a fund-freeze should only be resorted to in the very last case. Deutsch said that threatening a member state with sanctions increases Euro-skepticism and society's mistrust for European institutions."

Source: kormany.hu