EU stamp of approval on every operational programme 7 September 2007
Mr Vladimir Spidla, Commission of the European Commission Directorate General for Employment signed the 15th and final operational programme awaiting final approval, namely the Social Renewal Operational Programme, on 6 September 2007. As a result, the executive body of the EU has now approved all of Hungary’s sector and regional development programmes.
According to our information, Hungary was the forth of the of 27 member states of the EU to have all programmes approved by the Commission. Only Denmark, Malta and Holland managed to have their respective development programmes approved at an earlier date. However, the combined total of operational programmes of these three countries (altogether 9) was well under the number of OPs submitted by Hungary. In any case, member state developments in the European Union will be implemented within the framework of a total of 452 operational programmes during the 7-year development period; however, so far, the Commission has only approved a total of 90 OPs.
Hungary performed equally well during the procedure preceding the approval of the operational programmes, since Hungary was also amongst the first member states by having the New Hungary Development Plan approved by Brussels on 9 May. Therefore, on the basis of the overall results of the approval of the development plan and its programmes, Hungary was in medal-winning position in the member state competition of the EU.
It is therefore no surprise that we were the first member state to publish calls for applications, whilst the national development plans of some member states have not even been accepted. The way in which the planning procedure was based on wide-scope social reconciliation and has secured the consensus of the key players played a decisive part in this achievement.