A two-day Hungarian-Croatian meeting focusing on the use of EU funds available for public administration programmes started on Friday.

Opening the event in the town of Veszprem, in west Hungary, Tibor Navracsics, the minister of public administration and justice, said that Hungary had carried out its state public administration reform in the main by drawing on EU funds.

As part of the process, in 2010 the government cut the number of ministries to eight from 13-15 and restructured and modernised the system of public administration on several levels, he said.

Hungary is a good example of how EU funds can be best used not only for economic developments but in other areas as well, Navracsics said, adding that the OECD has recommended Hungary's reform of public administration as an exemplary model.

Navracsics, also a deputy prime minister, offered to share Hungary's experience with Croatia.

Orsat Miljenic, Croatia's justice minister, said his country had been working on revamping its public administration system since its EU accession and welcomed the availability of EU funds.

(MTI)