Police disperse Greenpeace protest in Budapest

Budapest police (BRFK) on Wednesday dispersed a protest staged by Greenpeace activists demanding the transparent handling of Hungary's revenues from carbon-credit transactions, and detained 12 demonstrators, BRFK said in a statement.

Fourteen Austrian, Slovak, Polish, Romanian and Hungarian activists put up tents in front of the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday morning, demanding that the revenues should be spent on green development projects.

Government Spokesman Domokor Szollar told reporters that the 28.2 billion forints (EUR 99.9m) Hungary had collected from carbon-credit sales had been set aside by the Environment Ministry, and the funds would be disbursed as part of the government's "Environmental Home - Environmental Office" bid programme on environment protection and energy saving developments. Szollar added that preparations to launch the programme were under way.

Police dispersed the demonstration after two hours, saying that the planned demonstration had not been announced to the authorities in advance and that the protesters were hindering the "normal operations" of parliament nearby. According to BRFK's statement, the 12 protesters were detained for disobeying police officers.

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