The Permanent Mission of Hungary organized for the fourth time a visit for Vienna based Ambassadors to the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. This time 12 representatives from the following countries participated: Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Germany and Russia. The participants also had the chance to visit the Maintenance and Training Centre, the temporary storage facility for spent fuel and the intermediate waste storage site in Bátaapáti. The executives of the institutions, Mr István Hamvas, CEO of the NPP and Mr. Ferenc Kereki, CEO of the Radioactive Waste Management Public Company as well as Dr. Attila Aszódi, Government Commisioner for the Paks II Project, provided the guests with thorough presentations of their activities.
The UN General Assembly Special Session on the world drug problem adopted by acclamation on April 19 in New York the outcome document previously agreed in Vienna. The event was a timely and excellent opportunity to assess achievements and reflect on the situation of the world drug problem since the Political Declaration and Plan of Action of 2009. Hungary welcomes the adoption of the outcome document which reflects common views and promotes results achieved so far and identifies new challenges in this field. The Head of the Hungarian Delegation, Mr. Imre Nyitrai, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Human Capacities highlights in his statement that while the drug problem is becoming a more and more complex phenomenon, during the last decade our own new reality has become the rapid appearance of new psychoactive substances.
Preventing the exploitation of human trafficking victims through forced criminality was the focus of the 2016 Alliance against Trafficking in Persons conference.
Sustainable Energy 4 ALL seminar hosted by Hungary on February 22
Hungary together with the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC), in collaboration with Japan and the United States of America celebrated on March 9 the anniversaries of their respective Support Programmes to the Department of Safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Director General of the IAEA, Yukija Amano also took part in the event. These Support Programmes strengthen IAEA safeguards by providing specific services and development work. Their main goal is to transfer technology and expertise, including development, provision and demonstration of technology, technical support, training, analysis services and human resources to the IAEA, thus contributing to the enhancement of international safeguards by improving their effectiveness and efficiency of safeguards implementation.
On the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January), the Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, State Secretary Szabolcs Takács addressed the OSCE Permanent Council meeting on 21 of January.
In Belgrade at a two-day conference of the Ministerial Council of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said that the events in Paris, Ankara, Beirut and Mali – as well as the bomb attack on the Russian airplane above the Sinai peninsula – prove that the time for the final countdown has come; the world’s most brutal terrorist network has launched an attack against the civilised world, and within that against Europe.
UNIDO DG Li Yong on a two day visit to Budapest on September 9-10 met with Hungarian officials and ministers, including Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Mihály Varga, Minister of National Economy.
Dr István Bondár, senior seismologist at the Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has attended the Preparatory Commission Working Group B 45th Session as a technical expert for the Hungarian delegation. Dr Bondár has recently been elected to be the Chair of the Working Group 4 (CTBTO Relations) of the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN), a global organisation representing seismic network operators and promoting free and open data exchange. Many IMS seismic stations also members of the FDSN and the coordination between the CTBTO and the FDSN is important for both organisations. As the new chair of the FDSN Working Group IV Dr Bondár met the Executive Secretary, Dr Lassina Zerbo in his office and discussed the future cooperation between the CTBTO and the FDSN.
The biannual Science and Technology conference organised by the CTBTO took place in Vienna, Austria 22-26 June, 2015 Hungrian participants included Dr István Bondár, senior scientist as well as Dr Katalin Gribovszki and Dr Márta Kiszely, researchers at the Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.