Minister Confident of Reaching an Agreement on EU Funds This Week

MTI-Hungary Today 2023.10.18.

Minister for Regional Development Tibor Navracsics is confident that an agreement with the European Commission will be reached by the end of November. Speaking at the Portfolio Budapest Economic Forum on Tuesday, he said that this will allow Hungary to have real access to EU funds, not just advance payments.

As Hungary Today reported yesterday, based on press reports, Tibor Navracsics and János Bóka will travel to Brussels on Wednesday evening for talks with EU Commissioners on Thursday. According to the news so far, there is a good chance that a compromise will finally be reached on the issue of EU funds for Hungary. The latest announcement by Tibor Navracsics at the Forum also confirms these earlier press reports.

The minister announced that another phase of the negotiations will start on Thursday this week and is expected to be finalized. He added that the main development policy objectives for the 2021-2027 planning period are economic development, competitiveness development, infrastructure development, and job creation. They also want Hungary to be among the five most livable EU Member States by 2030. For this, HUF 14,000 billion (EUR 36.5 million) will be available. He noted that

rural development funds are being disbursed, while operational programs and cohesion funds are not, as they are affected by the ongoing negotiations.

The country has already drawn down three percent of the 2021-27 funds, some of which are for EU projects advanced by the budget. The other part will finance organizational development and infrastructure activities in preparation for drawing down EU funds made possible by the European Commission in the future.

He said that there will also be sectoral operational programs in the new period, including the new Digital Renewal Operational Program. For this program, nearly HUF 800 billion (EUR 2 billion) will be available. This will cover the whole spectrum from infrastructure development to digital skills education and training. Moreover, access to the Recovery and Resilience Fund, with nearly HUF 2,300 billion (EUR 6 billion), will be made possible by the approval of Hungary’s national recovery plan by the European Council last December, he said. The Commission had requested that the plans focus on two development areas: green transition and related energy investments, and digital transition.

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Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Navracsics Tibor