The US-based firm behing the Hard Rock Cafe brand plans
to build the largest casino complex in Europe in northwest Hungary, the
president of Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment said in Budapest last
Friday. Jim Allen said that Hard Rock, in partnership with two Austrian
firms, will plough some EUR 5 billion into the project, through their
local subsidiary EuroVegas. Continue »

The European Commission last Wednesday gave Hungary
until 2011 to rein in its budget deficit to three per cent of gross
domestic product (GDP), the limit set out in the Maastricht Treaty as a
necessary step toward to adopting the euro currency. “In view of the
exceptional situation characterised by the depth and length of the
current recession and the fragility of the financial sector, the 2009
deadline is not achievable,” the EU’s Monetary Affairs Commissioner
Joaquin Almunia said. Continue »

Although the number of politicians baying for the
resignation of National Bank of Hungary (MNB) chief András Simor is
growing by the day, the MNB governor says that he still has “a job to
do” and he is not planning to quit. Continue »

Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) leader Ibolya Dávid
last week told her conservative party that the results of the European
Parliament elections demonstrate that only the right wing can save
Hungary from the rise of extremist political groups. The chief of staff
of the largest opposition party, the centre-right Fidesz, agreed but
said Dávid’s party is not the right wing party for the job “Successful
governance is the only efficient way of combating extremism, and only
the Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance is ready for that,” said Péter
Szíjjártó. Continue »

Anyone who has not heard of the Volt or the Sziget
festival must have spent the last few summers on the moon. These two
festivals now have a little sister, the Heineken Balaton Sound Festival
in Zamárdi, which will run for the third year from 9-12 July. The
Budapest Times has put together a useful, but by no means exhaustive,
list of some of the best festivals on offer in the months ahead. Continue »