This Friday in Budapest, Bence Rétvári emphasized how important are the European Groupings for Territorial Cooperation in the sense of Hungarian economy and national policy.

The Minister of State for Public Administration said in his speech he gave at the conference called ‘Framework for cross-border co-operations and developments in the 2014-2020 budget period’ that 46 European Groupings are under operation, out of which 19 are connected to Hungary. The Minister of State elaborated further that “our country utilizes this possibility far more compared to its size and our goal is to remain a leader in this area”.

He pointed out that the European Groupings assure the development of vibrant economic, cultural and educational relations on both sides of borders for speakers of the same language. Which may have been previously a disadvantage because of borders; in the EU could be an advantage. Furthermore he noted that for all cross-border programs, the 2014-2020 planning has started in order to receive EU funding as the previous budget was completely utilized before the end of its timespan.

Bence Rétvári also mentioned the fact that what could have been made, they did in the last four years to ensure the functioning of European Groupings. He enumerated that the yearly-available tender source is a stable financial security; they arranged each and every meeting which could facilitate the more efficient retrieval of EU funds and demolished all administrative obstacles.

He recalled that in 2006, when the European Groupings were assembled, their goal was to enable effective cross-border co-operation between institutions of national and regional authorities belonging to two or more EU Member States and the strengthening of economic and social cohesion.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)