Anikó Raisz, the state secretary for the environment and circular economy, said Hungary's EU presidency seeks to find a balance between competitiveness and climate-environmental protection targets.
Speaking at a press conference after a meeting of the Environmental Protection Council in Luxembourg late on Monday, Raisz emphasised the importance of simultaneously handling the goals of environmental protection, health, and the bloc's competitiveness when it comes to EU policymaking.
She noted that the council's position on the United Nations climate change conference (COP29) planned in Azerbaijan in November was discussed at the meeting, adding that the EU's plans in relation to combatting climate change were "ambitious" and backed by the relevant financing.
The bloc, she added, was taking a leading role in international efforts to tackle global heating, and it called for solidarity with countries and communities most exposed to climate change.
The EU's position on plastic pollution will be represented at the 5th session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC-5) to be held at the end of November in South Korea, where a legally binding international convention is scheduled to be adopted, she noted.
"We can't stress the importance of the convention ... enough," she said.
Regarding the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, scheduled to be held in Colombia between Oct 21 and Nov 1, she said noted that at the conference on biodiversity last year, states set the global target of ensuring that one-third of the planet's area should form a natural environment. Hungary has fulfilled this commitment, she said.