EVERY March 15, Hungarians commemorate the Revolution and the following War of Independence against the Austrian-Habsburg rule in 1848-49.

Hungary is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), the Visegràd Group, and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, which is part of the Finno-Ugric family. It is one of the four official languages of the European Union that is not of Indo-European origin.

Hungary held its first multi-party elections in 1990, following four decades of Communist rule, and has succeeded in transforming its centrally planned economy into a market economy. Both foreign ownership of and foreign investment in Hungarian firms are widespread. The governing coalition, composed of the Hungarian Socialist Party and the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats, prevailed in the April 23, 2006, general election. Hungary needs to reduce government spending and further reform its economy in order to meet the 2012-13 target date for accession to the Euro Zone.

We congratulate the people and government of Hungary led by Their Excellencies, President Laszlo Solyom and Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, and its Consulate in the Philippines, headed by Consul Alfonso S. Yuchengco III, on the occasion of their National Day.