Hungary's Orban backs down on central bank merger "The government's position must be formed at a government meeting, this happened yesterday," Mr Orban told Hungarian radio. Naturally, several laws may have to be modified, but the government cannot do it, this can be done only by parliament, and we will make proposals to this end. He said it would have been beneficial for Hungary to have had a safety agreement with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union already "yesterday," even if the country had no plans to draw on any funding made available. Mr Orban's Fidesz party has been criticised by the international community for introducing measures that threaten the independence of the media, the judiciary and the central bank since sweeping to power in 2010. EU negotiators walked away from talks in December over some of the issues, prompting a fresh sell-off on Hungarian financial markets that threatened its ability to finance its public debt this year and prompted the U-turn by the government. "If we take stock of the issues that have emerged, I do not see any particularly difficult issues," Mr Orban said. Regarding the central bank law, they questioned the merger of the central bank and (financial markets regulator) PSZAF the easiest will be to abandon the merger of the two institutions. They have been operating separately and they will do fine separately in the future. The other major point of dispute over the central bank was the enlargement of its monetary policy council and the appointment of a third deputy governor by Mr Orban. The prime minister did not refer specifically to these issues, but said that with the exception of a row over a public sector pay cap that affects the bank "on all other issues I think we can come to an agreement."