In EU grants 2016 will be the year of calls for proposals, while 2017 will be the year of the disbursement of funds and the commencement of implementation, János Lázár, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office said at the Tuesday meeting of the Agricultural Committee of Parliament.

Mr Lázár stressed in his account regarding the work completed in the previous year rendered before the committee that the Government will continue to adhere to the goal, based on which all the calls for proposals of the European Union grants available during the current fiscal cycle will be published by 31 March 2017.

At this point in time, commitments for the year 2017 are between HUF 3,500-4,000 billion, and they would like to reach HUF 5,000 billion by December. The goal is to disburse HUF 2,500 billion of this sum in 2017, Mr Lázár said.

The State Secretary responsible for agricultural and rural development at the Prime Minister’s Office said at the meeting of the committee: the calls for proposals of the Rural Development Programme simultaneously serve the reinforcement of small and medium-sized family farms, the creation of jobs in the countryside, and the attainment of an 80-20 per cent ratio between small and medium-sized farms and large agricultural estates.

Miklós Zsolt Kiss pointed out: funds worth some HUF 1,300 billion are available as part of the programme, and they wish to invite proposals on 68 grounds. They have to date called for proposals worth HUF 942.5 billion on 38 grounds. Proposals to the value of HUF 476 billion have been closed or suspended so far, and the two most significant calls are related to ecological farming and agrarian environmental management, for the purposes of which HUF 253 billion has been allocated.

There is great interest in the calls, he said, and this is also testified to by the fact that the applications submitted often exceed the available funds. These included the call worth HUF 66 billion in total promoting horticulture where the submitted proposals were in excess of HUF 70 billion. In response to the allocation of HUF 27 billion made available for the refurbishment of buildings that determine the landscapes of localities applications worth HUF 76 billion were received.

He told the committee that in order to satisfy legitimate needs, whenever possible, they make excess funds available. As a result, more than HUF 20 billion excess funds will be available for environmental management, and HUF 15 billion excess funds will be allocated for horticultural proposals.

The State Secretary said that they warn farmers to submit missing documents in order to make their proposals successful. This is important because nine tenths of applicants do not submit adequate documentation.

Mr Lázár said regarding the disbursement of funds: the reorganisation of the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (MVH) served the purposes of simplification and the reduction of bureaucracy. The desirable solution is to have a single disbursement agency in each country.

Miklós Zsolt Kiss added: farmers may rest assured that, after the reorganisation, the same people will administer their affairs with exactly the same accuracy even after the Hungarian State Treasury takes over the responsibilities of the disbursement agency.

Eszter Vitályos, State Secretary at the Prime Minster’s Office said upon outlining the technical details of the transformation project that they are currently in phase two, and the whole process will be closed in phase three with the accreditation of the State Treasury.

(MTI)