EU Commissioner for Regional Policy visits Hungary27 March 2008
Ms Danuta Hübner is paying a visit to Hungary to review opportunities for the concurrent funding of priority development poles and less-favoured regions.
The EU Commissioner for Regional Policy is visiting Budapest and several venues in the countryside on Thursday and Friday. The Commissioner will be holding talks with the competent representatives of the government, among others, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány and will also be meeting with other key players involved in the development of the regions.
Brussels views Hungary as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the EU programme underpinning the closing the gap of regions and sectors whose levels of development are below those of the EU average, i.e. the so-called cohesion policy, for which purpose the EU has earmarked nearly 25 billion Euros over the course of the 7-year budgetary period that began last year. By grouping the various types of funding, the EU wishes to promote the reduction of economic over-concentration in Budapest.
At a press conference held in Brussels earlier, Ms Hübner said that during her visit to Hungary she is equally interested in looking into help provided for underdeveloped regions, in addition to the priority development poles. The primary objective of the EU in all member states is to reduce disparities among the regions.
Following her meeting held with the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Mr Gordon Bajnai, Ms Hübner announced that according to the funding data for 2004-2006, Hungary ranks first among the 12 new member states of the European Union as regards the use made of EU funding, and ranks third among all EU member states. The Commissioner pointed out that the period of bigger challenges has just started for the government, local governments, as well as smaller communities, since member states will have the opportunity to use several times the rate of funding that has been made available so far.
The EU Commissioner will also map specific plans in Hungary, among others, the North Hungary programme targeting the integration of the Roma population, as well as the space cluster project plans in Miskolc. The Commissioner will officially open an information centre providing information on cohesion policy and will attend the international conference on Development poles and clusters in practice – international examples, implementation in Hungary held in Lillafüred. The Commissioner will launch the Southeast Europe Programme, which ties in with the themes discussed at the conference, which beyond eight EU member states, including Hungary, six West Balkan countries, as well as Ukraine and Moldova will engage in.
The objective of Ms Hübner’s visit equally relates to promoting the EU policy adopted for closing the gap in Hungary as well. According to the data of a recently conducted public opinion survey, 54% of Hungarians are not aware how their region or settlement also receives funding from the regional programmes of the EU.