“In the current funding period the important thing isn’t that the state succeeds in distributing EU funding, but that it distributes it well”, Head of the Prime Minister’s Office János Lázár said prior to a meeting in Budapest on Monday.
At the event, representatives from trade and industry, economic, agriculture and rural development organisations as well as business, municipality and settlement development advocacy groups discussed the conclusion of the 2007–2013 European Union development period, experiences and the future tasks in the 2014–2020 programming period.
As Mr. Lázár explained, Hungary concluded the first development period very successfully. The country closed the 2007–2013 period with a drawdown rate of 106%. Poland achieved a little over 100%, Slovakia and the Czech Republic between 80 and 90%, and Romania drew down less than 70% of the funding opportunities available. He highlighted that this means that Hungary concluded the recently ended programming period with the best result among the Visegrád Group countries, and one of the best results among the EU countries receiving cohesion funds.
The Minister pointed out that this would not have been possible if societal stakeholders had not supported the Government and in 2012–2013 had not forced it to adopt a new model, primarily in order to reduce bureaucracy and distribute funds more rapidly. This pressure to distribute EU funding within the framework of a totally new system came from economic stakeholders and municipalities, he pointed out.
“There is no point in us launching tenders for businesses and societal stakeholders if they are dissatisfied with the available funding or with the method or process of utilisation”, the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office stressed.
This is why the Government wants to establish a mediation mechanism, he noted, and Monday’s meeting was the second with groups involved, enabling the Government to receive continuous feedback on the status of tenders and funding distribution.
Another important piece of feedback will be on the extent to which the Government can provide funding to businesses and the winners of tenders as quickly as possible within a new system and with advance payments of 30–50%.
The Minister said that the most important innovation for 2016 is advance payments being made as early as the point at which applicants sign funding agreements, and he added that this year at least 700 billion forints (EUR 2.25bn) in loans should be distributed, or at least agreed.
He stated that the Government’s goal is to give further impetus to the Hungarian economy by 2018–2019 through the distribution of European Union funding.
The Government has laid down some cornerstones of the process, Mr. Lázár pointed out, citing the fact that the administration plans to publish all tenders by 1 July 2017. A total of 3700 billion forints (EUR 11.9bn) in tenders has already been published, and tenders totalling a further 2900 billion forints (EUR 9.3bn) are soon to be launched; we will already see substantive progress this year, he said. The plan is for all EU funding to be paid out by the second half of 2018 or early 2019, he added.
The Minister also said that continuous monitoring is required within the system, which is realised within the framework of social responsibility programmes not only in cooperation with representatives of industry and trade, but also, for instance, with churches.