The new Museum of Ethnography – _Photo: ligetbudapest.hu

Opposition councillor calls approval "unlawful"

City assembly passes amendment to construction rules

Budapest's metropolitan assembly on Wednesday approved an amendment to building regulations in connection with the revamp of the capital's City Park. The amendment was approved with 18 votes in favour, 10 against and one abstention.

The proposal notes that the amendment nixes construction of the New National Gallery, the Hungarian House of Innovation and the City Park Theatre along with certain catering and commercial establishments with the aim of turning the areas on which they would have been built into green spaces.

It also adds regulations pertaining to the use of renewable energy and amends existing ones with the aim of protecting the park’s plant life.

In a debate before the amendment was passed, Fidesz councillor Zsolt Lang called its approval “unlawful”, arguing that it went against a government decree fixing the project’s building regulations issued on Tuesday which says the capital will not have the authority to amend building rules set out in the decree.

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony said the city’s leadership had offered to compromise on the project with the government by allowing completion of construction projects that were already under way in the area.

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