Along with the Convergence Programme, the Government also sent the 2015 National Reform Programme to the European Commission. This document outlines major Government measures that have been implemented in order to meet the growth and employment objectives of the Europe2020 strategy and comply with the country-specific recommendations of the previous year.

The member states of the European Union formulate every year an individual national reform programme and a convergence programme in the month of April.

Hungary’s 2015 National Reform Programme includes, among others, key measures that have been implemented or are being implemented to improve bank lending, employment, energy efficiency, the efficiency of the education system and business environment.

Hungary has recently made substantial progress in meeting goals formulated by the Europe2020 strategy. The most impressive achievement is that the employment rate improved between 2010 and 2014 by 6.8 percentage points (alone in 2014 by 3.7 percentage points!), to 66.7 percent. In the same period, employment growth averaged only 0.6 percentage points within the European Union. The R&D spending-to-GDP ratio reached 1.44 percent in 2013, which shows a significant improvement compared to the 1.17 percent figure in 2010. In light of the latest data, Hungary has managed to edge closer to meeting each Europe2020 target.

Nearing these targets also proves the adequacy of measures implemented over the past years, which are outlined in the National Reform Programme. While the country’s fiscal balance could be maintained and the level of general government debt could be kept on a descending path, Hungary also became the country with the second largest economic growth figure of the EU. And parallel to sharply higher employment figures, the risk of poverty has also diminished

(Ministry for National Economy)