The Ministry of National Development is preparing with a specific action plan for the establishment of the tender system serving the interests of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The main goal is to help domestic SMEs to receive money from EU funds several orders of magnitude more than earlier – highlighted Tamás Fellegi Minister of National Development on the second day of the Heads of Missions’ Conference organized in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 31st August 2010, in Budapest.

Considering that Hungary is among the main beneficiaries of the development resources of cohesion policy, our country is interested in the operation of a strong cohesion policy that pays attention to the development needs of less developed member states and regions, too – said Tamás Fellegi. We are convinced that Hungary’s presidency shall serve as a forum for a beneficial positioning of cohesion policy; and, as much as possible, we have to be able to identify the potential orientations of the discussions about the future, together with the matters expected to raise arguments and demand compromises, this way helping the work of the subsequent presidencies and the soonest possible closure of the arguments. The development ministry prepares for the management and coordination of the EU relations and the obligations emerging in connection with the Hungarian presidency by the means of a separate Office of Deputy Junior Minister for EU and International Affairs, led by Tamás Iván Kovács – added the Minister.

The Minister also informed the participants of the tasks connected to the reform of the tender system and the deadlines thereof. The reform of the system of institutions managing the domestic use of EU resources, including the processes of the execution system is extremely important. The elaboration of a system allowing a simplified, faster and more effective procedure compared to the present one, as well as a new procedural regulation can be ready for 31st December 2010. Tamás Fellegi expects the same date as the deadline until which an efficient governance of the National Development Agency [NFÜ] and an effective supervising system will operate. The system of the contributing organizations is expected to be reformed by 31st December next year. The new domestic development sources may appear in a separate budget heading from 1st January 2011. A new, uniform regulation of execution is promised by the Minister for the end of this year. The regulation of supported goals in accordance with the New Széchenyi Plan will be ready by 31st January 2011. By the end of next year, a uniform information and monitoring system and a uniform system of development management are expected to be elaborated, in the interest of the effective and successful operation of the development policy. All of these shall contribute to the transparent management of the Hungarian budget resources allocated to development policy, the sums of Hungarian and EU co-financing included; and to the standard evaluation of the effects of the development programmes.

 For questions, Tamás Fellegi said that guaranteeing the secure energy supply is a primary national interest, therefore the state, besides its role in regulation, is determined to take up a firm role in the field of ownership obligations, too. The Minister emphasized the importance of the diversification of transport routes and resources, as well as the connection of the region’s energy infrastructures in North-South direction. Besides this, in order to decrease the dependency on import, the government is committed to encourage the spread of alternative and renewable sources of energy – underlined the Minister.

Again for a question, the Minister explained: with respect to the large enterprises the majority shareholders of which are Hungarians, the government’s primary goal is to ascertain the maintain of Hungarian stakes.

 Ministry of National Development Communication Department Budapest,
31st August 2010