Deputy State Secretary for Development Policy Communication, Nándor Csepreghy stressed that Hungary has arrived at a milestone: in the 2007-2013 programming period, the amount of EU funds to Hungary exceeded HUF 7000 billion and another HUF 1500 billion is expected to be disbursed by the end of this year.

Mr Csepreghy added that according to the government, if it had not been for institutional transformations, Hungary could not have closed a record period in the absorption of EU funds. Also, by making the applications more user-friendly, a total of HUF 1863 billion was disbursed last year.
He pointed out that this year poses several challenges to Hungary in the absorption of EU funds partly because it is in 2015 that funds can be absorbed for the 2007-2011 programming period for the last time and the calls for proposals will be opened for the 2014-2020 cycle.

He reminded that the relevant ministries – Ministry for National Economy, Ministry of Human Capacities, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of National Development – will be provided with the financial framework necessary to develop increased necessary to prepare the closing of the 2007-2013 EU funding period.

Pursuant to the government’s decision, reserve lists have to be closed by the end of March, and the ministries will be responsible for revising the projects, and for either granting or declining funding for them. The Prime Minister’s Office has to close the current contract appeals by 15 April and – for instance in the case of construction investment projects – new public procurement procedures can only be launched in those cases where the implementation is guaranteed by 30 November the latest.

He recalled that in the 2007-2013 EU funding period, the government assumed financial liability for HUF 9300 billion instead of the initially allocated HUF 8200 billion. He added that Hungary has to use 100% of the European development funds available in order to minimise the amount of budgetary support that would have to be provided in the case the country has overburdened itself.

Mr Csepreghy indicated that the list of delayed public projects – that carry the of risk loss of funding for the country – will be published next Wednesday. This list can be reviewed by the relevant ministries who can decide on their future.

The beneficiaries involved in the delayed projects will not receive any funding in the 2014-2020 period as long as they have completed their developments. Should a delayed project remain in the cycle of funding and fail to be completed, the government might decide to reduce its central budgetary support for the next year. In this context, Mr Csepreghy noted that most of the projects get delayed due to management issues, lack of resources and in many cases, inappropriate preparation. He added that there are projects – related to wastewater, drinking water and waste management – that must be implemented due to EU obligations. In these cases, the management of the delayed projects is carried out in the central public system. A public project implementation agency – set up as a background institution of the Ministry of National Development – takes over the given project and after its completion, the original beneficiary gets back the right of operation.

(Prime Minister's Office)