The head of the EP group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) said on Thursday that the ideas of conservative Democratic Forum PM-candidate Lajos Bokros would be "the best for Hungary".

"The Forum's PM-candidate has mature ideas about how Hungary could recover from the current economic crisis," Michal Kaminski told a press conference during a two-day ECR session in Budapest.

"It is a great pleasure to work with such a man of profound learning," he said.

Dutch MEP Peter Van Dalen said he would support Bokros in "reforming Hungary."

An economic reformer, Bokros was finance minister in Gyula Horn's socialist-liberal government in 1995-1996. He is famed for his eponymous austerity package, which successfully dug Hungary out of its economic hole in the mid-nineties.