Zoltán Illés studied Chemical Engineering. Since university, he militated in environmental activism groups. Later, he developed a career on scientific research, writing a PhD and spending time researching in the USA. In 1994 he joined Fidesz, the party that now holds the Hungarian Government. Currently, he serves its country as State Secretary of Environmental Protection, Nature Conservation and Water Management, and he teaches at CEU in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy. The CEU Weekly had the opportunity of talking to him, and we want to share the results of this interview.
A hectic morning. Get a tripod for the video camera. Discover that the video camera that we expected to use for the interview has suddenly decided to stop working in the last moment. It did so the evening before. Run home to get a not-so-good camera. Run back. Prepare the venue. Wait. The Minister does not arrive. Call his secretary. OK, he is on his way. OK, he is late. OK, patience, nerves.
Finally, he enters the room, accompanied by his latest assistant. A colleague, he specifies. It seems he has 138, and all of them are allocated to two days each of “shadowing” the Minister. After the necessary greetings, setting the camera in the correct angle and accomplishing our interviewer-faces, we proceed with our first question:
Please, could you provide us with a little background and how did you get engaged in environmental issues?
I remember learning in my childhood about the importance of protecting nature from my parents and grandparents. I was born in Subotica (then Yugoslavia), from a Croatian mother and a Hungarian father, being part of the Hungarian minority in Serbia. I graduated from the Technical University of Budapest as a chemical engineer, and then I pursued my PhD in analytical chemistry, publishing papers dealing with environment protection. At the same time I was always concerned about the social-political and economical aspects of the environment as well.
During my university years I was heavily involved in the opposition movement of the 1980s (during Socialism), especially dealing with environmental issues. I still have strong connections with Hungarian NGOs. Each month I hold 2,5-3 hours of announced consultations with local NGOs. I strongly believe in the importance of cooperating with grass-root organizations and in the importance of having their feedbacks. Today I was talking to András Lukács, leader of Air-Group, and I discussed with him how to use our resources for air pollution management.
On a later stage I worked as post-doctoral researcher in the United States, and I was also employed by the World Bank in Washington D.C. as a consultant on environmental issues with a focus on Poland and Hungary. Already in the time of the first elected Hungarian parliament in 1990 I worked as secretary to the Minister. Other past jobs of mine include working for the European Union's Embassy to Hungary in the 1990s, dealing both with minority and environmental issues. Later on, I returned to the USA for more research work, this time in environmental policy development.
After the elections of 1998, I became a Member of Parliament with Fidesz, my constituency being the 6th district of Budapest. I became also member of the committee for environment.
Impressive CV, indeed. But we are wondering how a career that began with environmental activism and followed with scientific research ended up joining Fidesz?
I was more open to social-environmental issues already during my university years. Therefore I joined NGOs, being an initial developer for several ones, including the Green Club of my University and the Danube Circle. These were the last years of Socialism, which was the preparatory period of Hungarian democracy, and I felt that I had to join grassroots organizations.
I joined Fidesz after the elections of 1994, which was an astonishing fail for the party considering that in the public opinion polls of December 1993 Fidesz obtained a 43%. The Party was not at the peak of its popularity. Soon after I joined, I became vice-president (among a total of 8), responsible for environment protection strategy. Kept this position until 2003.
As regards environmental issues in Hungarian politics, this country still has a long way to go. There is no Green Party, even though there have been several failed attempts, due to the relatively small population, and the environment is not a relevant part in the other parties’ agendas. This is why I strongly cooperate with NGOs, members of the civil society that are not engaged in political debates, but rather concentrate on the environment.
We would like to continue the interview with your point of view on the implementation of European legislation in Hungary after it became a part of the EU.
I keep considering that close cooperation with the EU institutions is essential. When I took my position after the elections of 2010, I had to face in September and October of 2010 the Red Sludge catastrophe. The cost of the rehabilitation of that area was 150 millions USD, and the operations are not over yet, having ranged from topsoil removal to the creation of new houses for those affected by the spill.
While we were focusing on the rehabilitation of the area, Hungary held the presidency of the EU during the first half of 2011. We also faced reforms in the Administration, changing from 16 to 8 ministries and reducing severely the number of employees.
For another year I was busy with the development and implementation of a Danish model of waste management. It was a truly successful work, since Hungary managed to at last comply with EU legislation in this field. I am also proud of my work in relation to the Natura 2000 Network, as our case against Audi’s activities inside a Natura 2000 protected area proved.
Also in relation to European Affairs, we feel interested in knowing your point of view on the reform processes for the Common Fisheries Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy.
As regards the CAP, I was just having this morning a discussion concerning the Greening of European Agricultural, which we support. In the field of fisheries, I fiercely stand against the current overfishing not only of European Waters, but of all oceans, and I expect strong measures from the high administration of the EU to tackle this problem.
Despite the fact that popularity of governing parties necessarily decreases after the first months (as it has been demonstrated all around the world), now the coalition parties (Fidesz and the Christian-Democrat Party) are winning the public opinion polls.
It is impossible to implement regulations that are attractive to everybody. However, the public good is our goal, and we consider it reachable, This means that the important thing is to implement the regulations that are the best for the widest public. For instance our government has succeeded in generally decrease the prices of public services. More concretely, our ministry has managed to decrease the price of such an important public service as waste collection.
For the second half of the mandate, I would like to establish highly protected zones inside the National Parks, cooperate with non-profit organizations in organizing ecotourism all around the country and implement new policies to decrease air pollution, which is a big issue in Hungary. We also want to change our obsolete bus fleet, as well as restoring the irrigation system, which worked at a high level during the Socialism but was lost after 1990.
Last but not least, could you give us some words on your professional relationship with CEU?
I became an employee of CEU in 1997 after having come back from the US. My department was newly developed. I was the 2nd favorite candidate for this job, but the first one, from Russia, decided to go to work in Great Britain instead.
Since the very beginnings our department (Environmental Science and Policy) has had several strengths: a very good colleague body (I do not call students simply students, since everybody who comes here has already a diploma, and they are among the best on Planet Earth, who are studying here), as well as our very special program (MESPOM), working in partnership with the Lund University, the University of Manchester and the University of the Aegean.
Authors:
Ágnes Kelemen (Nationalism Studies)
Sergio Rejado Albaina (MESPOM)
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