Before the end of the year, the state will take over the debt of those villages and towns that have less than 5000 inhabitants – said András Tállai, the Ministry of Interior's State Secretary for Municipal Affairs at a press conference on Thursday.

Those villages and towns that have less than 5000 inhabitants will be consolidated this year already according to the bill on the modification of the 2012 budget – said András Tállai. 

According to State Secretary Tállai, the Ministry of National Economy must take the relevant actions to ensure that the banks receive the required financial sources by 28 December.

He also mentioned that Parliament is expected to pass the bill on December3, after which the Ministry of Interior will launch a series of consultations between December 5 and 14. During the consultations, Ministry delegations will talk with the representatives of all the involved towns and villages with less than 5000 inhabitants.  

In every county of Hungary, a total of 1758 local government mayors and notaries will be invited to one of 31 locations across Hungary to discuss the details. The task of the Ministry's six delegations will be to explain the legal background and the related tasks of the local governments.  

State Secretary Tállai said that the local governments will have to provide data to the Hungarian State Treasury by 17 December on their financial state as of 12 December. It will be the duty of the State Treasury to forward the collected data to the Ministry of National Economy. 

The ministry delegations will be led by State Secretary András Tállai, Deputy State Secretary Emese Farkané Gasparics and two heads of department, along with deputy heads of department.

Answering questions, András Tállai explained that in the future there will be two kinds of local governments those that took part in consolidation and those that did not. For those local governments that did not take part in consolidation, special development tenders will be announced. They will also be able to apply for local government-related development project tenders with no or with lower level financial participation. The details will be elaborated in the future – he added.

At a conference held in October entitled “Local governments in the trap of debt”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that the state will take over 612 billion forints of debt from 1956 local governments.

(MTI, Ministry of Interior)