Hungary need not be afraid of the withdrawal of the EU cohesion funds. The Government may well be able to make the totality of the funds available already next spring, and is also preparing for operating developments from the country’s own resources beyond 2020, Nándor Csepreghy, Minister of State at the Prime Minister’s Office told the Tuesday issue of the newspaper Magyar Idők.

In his interview given to the newspaper, Mr Csepreghy pointed out that more than 70 per cent of the development funds of the allocation of HUF 8,900 billion to be granted during the EU fiscal cycle between 2014-2020 has already been made available for calls for proposals: the total funds of the 276 calls published to date amounts to more than HUF 6.400 billion. And while the Government promised earlier that all calls will be published by June 2017, all grants will be available for proposals already by next spring.

Mr Csepreghy takes the view that the allocation of grants is not affected by the disputes ongoing with Brussels, and the Hungarian position regarding the migrant issue likewise cannot affect the drawdown of cohesion funds. „Brussels cannot retain development funds with reference to the migration dispute”, he stated.

He added that, at the same time, the Government is also prepared for the eventuality that cohesion funds may be withdrawn from the region beyond 2020. „It is important that we should close a cycle which will make us independent of any grants in an economic sense”, he stressed.

Regarding the measures contemplated in the context of the reduction of bureaucracy, he said: the State has spent a vast sum of money on digitisation and the simplification of administration, and the maintenance of the current institutional system is no longer justified. He added that, upon the laying off of state workers, the State will pay attention to the number of jobs available in the competitive sector in the given region, and will provide grants for re-training as well.

(MTI)