The Government will next week finalize the Partnership Agreement, the framework for the allocation of EU funds in the period 2014-2020, and submit the document officially at the end of February to the European Commission, Minister of State for Economic Strategy Zoltán Cséfalvay told MTI, adding that the first tender invitations are expected to be announced in the second half of this year.

Member states have until 22 April to submit the Partnership Agreement, and Hungary is likely to be among the first countries to formally forward the document to the Commission, he stated, adding that last week the final phase of informal negotiations was successfully concluded between Hungary and the Commission.

The EU body has three-six months to officially approve the document, but as Zoltán Cséfalvay said he hopes that formal coordination will be short, as debated issues could mostly be settled during informal negotiations.

The eight operative programmes providing a detailed description of the resources, priorities and objectives regarding the support of individual sectors shall be presented within three months after the Partnership Agreement has been submitted, and these are scheduled by the Government to be sent to Brussels as early as March.

Speaking about financial resources the Minister of State said that in the 2014-2020 EU fiscal period an amount of altogether HUF 7480bn, including Hungarian own funds, will be made available for development programmes.

Zoltán Cséfalvay reiterated that 60 percent of total funding, some HUF 4500bn, will be spent directly on economic development. This amount, he emphasised, is significantly higher in comparison to 2007-2013.

From this aspect, the most important scheme is the Economic Development and Innovation Operative Programme (GINOP) with overall funding of HUF 2850bn. More than HUF 1200bn will be earmarked for the Regional and Urban Development Operative Programme (TOP), some three-quarters of which will also be allocated for economic development. There are six other operative programmes which, albeit in various amounts, also include resources planned to be disbursed for economic development projects, the Minister of State pointed out.

At least 15 percent of the avaialable amount of HUF 7480bn will serve to bolster SMEs in a direct way. The Minister of State called it a crucial change that instead of the hitherto prevalent attitude of providing general stimulus for enterprise development funding in the future will be more precisely aimed at special groups of enterprises (such as start-ups, rapid-growth companies, suppliers) as well as regions and sectors.

Some 10 percent of the total fund will be channelled to R&D&I. In the GINOP alone HUF 680bn will be earmarked for this objective, but the overall amount totals HUF 750bn with various allocations of other operative programmes which is double the amount made available in the 2007-2013 fund, Zoltán Cséfalvay said.

Another 10 percent of resources will be spent directly on bolstering employment which field, in contrast to the former policy, will be regarded as an economic development rather than a social issue.

For Hungary it is of special importance that some 10 percent of resources, altogether some HUF 720bn (a two-and-a-half-fold increase compared to the former period), will be devoted directly to improving energy efficiency.  The Minister of State added that energy efficiency upgrades will also help public utility tariff cuts to become long-term and sustainable measures.

Zoltán Cséfalvay also pointed out that 5 percent of total funding, some HUF 400bn, will be spent on IT development and the Government has managed to set aside some HUF 250bn for tourism development projects.

As far as economic development programmes are concerned, it has been an important change that after lengthy debates with the Commission negotiators have managed to increase the share of so-called financial instruments, including – among others – refundable grants, preferential-interest loans and guarantees, the Minister of State announced. These resources will be re-utilizable by other tenderers after they have been repaid. Some 10 percent of total funding, some HUF 700bn, will thus be rechanneled into the economy, boosting mainly enterprise development and, to a lesser extent, tenders related to innovation, info-communication and energy efficiency. Positive change in this latter field will, in turn, benefit private households, he stressed.

(Ministry for National Economy)