Hungarian Environment Minister Laszlo Gajdos has threatened to close factories in the EV battery industry that fail to abide by environmental regulations. This marks a major policy shift from the previous right-wing leader Viktor Orban, who lost power in April.
Environmental Concerns
From 2021, Orban had invested heavily in EV batteries, attracting foreign investment worth some €26 billion, mainly from South Korean and Chinese manufacturers, making Hungary a key hub in Europe. However, environmental and health concerns around the plants surfaced as a key issue ahead of the election, where centre-right rival Peter Magyar, who pledged to take a tougher stance on the sector, defeated Orban in a landslide.
Gajdos stated, ‘We must restore the balance between industrial development and environmental protection.’ He promised to raise pollution fines to what he called Europe’s strictest levels.
On Wednesday, Laszlo Papp, mayor of Debrecen and a member of Orban’s Fidesz party, called on Chinese battery parts maker Semcorp to leave Hungary’s second-largest city due to recent findings of environmental pollution. The regional government office suspended Semcorp’s production licence in late June after authorities found large-scale aluminium pollution in water samples taken from monitoring wells around the plant.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
