Ambassador Szapáry met Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Congressman Cliff Stearns (R-FL) to discuss issues of mutual interest, including  important upcoming events in Hungary. At the end of June 2011, celebrations surrounding the  Reagan Centennial will be organized in Budapest. Hungary will dedicate a statue to the former U.S. president for his efforts to help end the communist system. Earlier this year Hungary's postal service issued a commemorative envelope and postmark commemorating the centenary of the birth of the late Ronald Reagan. The commemorative envelope shows Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and includes — in Hungarian and English — Reagan's famous 1987 appeal to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall.

Also in June, the Tom Lantos Institute will be inaugurated in Budapest. Named after late Congressman, the institute will be dedicated to the promotion of democratic values,  tolerance, human rights and the rights of minorities. Lantos kept the spotlight on human and minority rights in the broader region of Central Europe. The Institute will help the peaceful coexistence of majority and minority populations, regional cooperation and stability.  In addition, the Institute aims to become a pillar of transatlantic relations, with special regard to cooperation between Central Europe and the United States.

Hungary as the Presidency of the Council of the European Union will host the Transatlantic Legislators’ Dialogue. The TLD aims at enhancing the dialogue between European and American (federal) legislators, the European Parliament and the Congress. It is founded on the principle that EU-US relations cover diverse fields of legislation from foreign policy, to economic and financial policies, to energy and climate change or issues of civil liberties, much of which has an effect across the Atlantic.

Ambassador Szapáry invited his congressional partners to attend the events of the Reagan celebration and the Lantos Institute inauguration, to participate in the Transatlantic Legislator’s Dialogue as well as to join the Congressional Hungarian Caucus.