The New Hungary Development Plan has been signed 9 May 2007
The ceremonious signing of the New Hungary Development Plan by the European Commission and the Hungarian government was held today in the city of Hof, Germany. The document fixes the areas and amount of money Hungary may spend from the total of 7000 billion HUF funding framework available in the upcoming 7 years. As a result of negotiations on the development plan, the internal financial structure of the plan submitted to Brussels by the government only changed by a mere 2% following wide-scope social reconciliation.
„The development plan that has just been signed is a 7-year contract concluded between the 490 million citizens of the European Union and 10 million Hungarians for developing our country with the help of the European Union. I am happy about how the European Commission approved our development concepts with minimum changes amongst the first group of member states to have submitted their respective plans. The document that has just been signed and the several thousands of billion Hungarian Forints of funding ensured through this plan is also all about trust, since we must not forget how this amount has been collected from the tax cents paid by the citizens of other member states. I believe that we will be able to live up to this and promote the growth of the country in line with national interests and advance the entire European Union.” – said Gordon Bajnai, development policy commissioner in connection with the ceremonious signing.
Danuta Hübner, regional policy commissioner of the EU, and Gordon Bajnai, development policy commissioner representing the government of Hungary signed the final version of the New Hungary Development Plan early this afternoon in Hof Germany.
In the course of negotiations with the European Commission on the development plan, the financial frameworks proposed by the government of Hungary were modified by a total of less than 2%, as regards funding allocation amongst specific programmes, whilst the total funding framework did not change and remains 7000 billion HUF. (A further support framework of approximately 1 300 billion HUF will be available in the next 7 years under the management of the Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development within the framework of the New Hungary Rural Development Plan.)
As an outcome of negotiations, an increasing rate of funding has been made available for human resource development, environmental protection and economic development, whilst funding for transport development has decreased by a rate of 1% in relation to the original framework.
The signing that has just taken place is almost the final step prior to the close of negotiations with Brussels. The operational programmes are still being negotiated between the European Commission and Hungary, which are due to close by the middle of summer this year.