During the present European fiscal cycle, Hungary has development funds worth HUF 12 thousand billion at its disposal which means that up to 2020 HUF 712 thousand forints will fall on every Hungarian citizen, while this sum was 650 thousand forints during the previous EU fiscal cycle, Nándor Csepreghy, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office said before the Business Development Committee of Parliament.

The State Secretary added: they will use 60 per cent of the allocation for the purposes of the development of the economy as the Government sought to create a development policy which reflects the interests of the players of the Hungarian economy. Between 2007 and 2013, political considerations overwrote the logic of development funds in the country’s development policy regime, he said.

Mr Csepreghy drew attention to the fact that, as regards the funding cycle between 2007-2013, while during the initial period of the socialist governments, calls for proposals worth HUF 7,138 billion were launched, the Government currently in office made available HUF 9,312 billion during the same cycle. While left-wing governments were able to award HUF 2,943.9 billion to applicants in grants, the incumbent Government managed to raise this figure to HUF 5,689 billion during the same fiscal cycle. According to the State Secretary, it indicates the efficiency of the government apparatus that while during the left-wing governments HUF 4.3 billion reached applicants from the State Treasury within a week, this figure is now HUF 19.3 billion.

Mr Csepreghy compared the absorption of EU funds in the context of the Visegrád countries. In Poland 72.2 per cent of the total allocation placed at their disposal has been released for calls for proposals. Poland is followed by Slovakia and the Czech Republic with 7.36 and 82 per cent, respectively. In the case of Hungary, however, 104 per cent of the available grants has already been made available, including local fiscal funds.

Mr Csepreghy said that, in the case of public procurement, the issue of a single offer is a pan-European problem, extending all the way from France to the Eastern border of the European Union. Hungary has found a solution to this problem, thanks to which the percentage of public procurements relying on single bidders and implemented without calls for proposals has decreased significantly. Additionally, by virtue of the amendment of the public procurement legislation, they have achieved that the number of public procurements which are based on single offers may be zero as this functions as a kind of invalidity threshold. According to the State Secretary, it is “regrettable” that MSZP did not support this initiative.

The State Secretary also pointed out that there is a theoretical dispute between left-wing parties and the Government as to whether development policy funds should be regarded as part of the country’s social policy. The State Secretary took the view that the most serious problems of the previous funding cycle stemmed from the fact that the available funds were not seen as a development opportunity, but as part of social policy.

Mr Csepreghy added: there are at present 133 thousand businesses as potential applicants in calls for proposals, and from among them 74 thousand are awarded applicants. The State Secretary took the view that opposition politicians “accuse all businesses of maintaining close ties with the Government”.

The State Secretary also highlighted: not a single previous government filed as many reports and initiated as many procedures in cases involving corruption as the present one. After 7 years of Fidesz governance, the European Union can only find cases suspected of corruption which are associated with the years of MSZP governance, he added.

Mrs Pölöskei (Gáborné), Deputy State Secretary for Vocational Training and Adult Training at the Ministry for National Economy, spoke about the state of vocational training between 2012 and 2016, and mentioned the extension of dual training, the possibility of obtaining second qualifications free of charge, the change in the operators of vocational training institutions and the scholarship grants of students in vocational training as positive developments. She added: the Ministry is in charge of 44 vocational training centres and 374 vocational training institutions as operator.

(MTI/kormany.hu)