Mr. Miklós Ligeti:

When this law was drafted, I was working for the Ministry of Interior as a government employee, and I was personally involved in the drafting of this law. It was against my will, but as a civil servant I had to obey rules. I want to put this forward to make clear that I have a special involvement in this particular issue, while I must also say that I do not believe criminal law is the tool to be used to tackle the issue of homelessness. The law on criminalising homelessness was found unconstitutional by the constitutional court and was later lifted in the constitution, but it was then revised. The text now states that in specified areas of major towns where the municipality decides that begging and homelessness are not welcome, a harsh sanction may be attached to such unlawful behaviours, including incarceration in the last instance. This is a personal statement and is not made in my capacity as a representative of Transparency International Hungary, because TI Hungary has virtually nothing to do with homelessness. In our individual capacity we feel for homeless people, but this is beyond TI's capacity. I hope that was a clear statement.

As for the agreement with Russia, it is at the discretion of any government to conclude any deal with foreign governments which they believe to be in the interests of the country. However, in a democratic European country, it is required that agreements which expose the country and the population as taxpayers to an immense financial burden be publicly debated and that consultation take place. I do not mean that a plebiscite must be organised to legitimate every single international agreement, but the €10 billion loan from Russia seems to be money with no strings attached, whereas the funding from European Union resources comes with requirements to live up to democracy, human rights and the idea that we have in Europe a common era of freedom, security and justice.