Low birth rates and emigration are two fundamental problems in Central and Eastern Europe for which, it seems, the only solution is incentive family policy together with creating job opportunities.

In 2015 the Hungarian Government has launched the Family Support Package to create favourable conditions for couples who are planning their future together in Hungary. 

The latest measure of the Hungarian family support system is related to infertility medical treatment through which couples will have free access to IVF procedures.

As a result, the government purchased six private fertility clinics  in order to meet demands of the estimated 150,000 couples across the country who have fertility issues but want to have children, La Croix reports.

According to Breitbart, previously, IVF procedures were largely out of reach for many Hungarian couples due to the costs associated with the procedure, but now the pro-family government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is planning to give all couples free access.

Secretary of State for the Family Katalin Novák commented on the new measures saying: “If all couples who want a child manage to have a baby, Hungary will no longer have demographic problems.”

The six aforementioned fertility clinics will be under governmental control until the end of 2022 since in the spring of the same year there will be parliamentary elections in Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said during his press conference on January 9, that bioetichal and pro-life reasons are behind this latest decision.

“In our minds, immigration means surrender,” Prime Minister Orbán said last year, and added: “If we resign ourselves to the fact that we are unable to sustain ourselves even biologically, by doing so we admit that we are not important even for ourselves.”

Photo: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivers a speech during the 3rd Budapest Demographic Summit in Varkert Bazar conference center in Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019. The Hungarian capital city, which hosts the international summit for the third time after 2015 and 2017, welcomes politicians, scientists, church dignitaries and public personalities to give presentations and exchange their experiences on current population trends. (Szilard Koszticsak/MTI/Hungarian News Agency)