Minister of Public Administration and Justice Tibor Navracsics said that over the last three years his ministry has implemented the policy reforms set out by the Government, and that in the coming year the task will be to fine-tune and ‘break in’ the system. Mr. Navracsics was speaking on Friday at a press conference summarising the Ministry’s achievements.

The Minister recalled that in 2010 his ministry had aimed to make progress in three areas: reform of central administration, of regional administration and of the judiciary. He added that when the Government was formed, one of its fundamental objectives was to carry out reforms in order to help in those areas where Hungary had proved to be extremely uncompetitive.

Mr. Navracsics said that over the last three years, as a result of central public administration reform, the system of state institutions has become younger and slimmer as the number of government officials has been reduced from 100,000 to 83,000. Since 2010 in many areas the Ministry has expanded its remit, which it is fulfilling whilst achieving savings of HUF 18 billion; proof of its rejuvenation is that now two-thirds of ministry officials are under the age of forty.

He also stated that foreign language and professional skills levels among government officials at the Ministry have improved radically; therefore the department is today far more ‘competitive’ than it has ever been.

The Minister also noted that in 2010 the aim had been to break with what had until then been considered as the traditional departmental model, in which each ministry was a lobbyist for its own sphere of interest; this was to be replaced by a ‘leading ministry’ system along the lines of France or Britain, in which alongside ministries with specific tasks – foreign affairs or defence, for example – sectoral policies would be drawn together around corresponding larger focal points.

He referred to the other focus of administrative restructuring as simplification of the ‘institution jungle’; as a result, instead of the six support institutions existing in 2010 (the Wekerle Sándor Fund Manager, the National Institute of Public Administration, ECOSTAT, the Judicial Affairs Service, the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice Property Authority and the National State Administration Centre), by 2013 there is a single body – the Office of Public Administration and Justice.

Mr. Navracsics said that thanks to deregulation, over the past three years 864 parliamentary resolutions, 1,966 government decrees and 460 statutes have been repealed; these were obsolete provisions adopted over the past decades, which only served to take up space in the Statute Book. The Minister also stressed the simplification of electronic public administration and IT improvements which include the issue of passports within 24 hours on request, and the electronic register of births, marriages and deaths now adopted by Parliament. The Minister estimated the measures introduced to have reduced administrative burdens for individuals and businesses by around 25-30 per cent.

Speaking of regional administrative reform, he said that in September 2010 the setting up of county administrative offices had restored oversight of the legality of local authority’s actions, that county government offices were created January 2011, and January 2013 saw the creation of 175 regional district offices and 23 metropolitan district offices. He said that the almost universal acceptance of the regional district system’s allocation of territorial and thematic jurisdiction was unprecedented.

With reference to the renewal of administration for individual citizens’ affairs, he highlighted the setting up on 1 January 2011 of the system of government service points (or ‘windows’), which enable citizens to arrange their affairs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday; the number of types of affairs dealt with is 63 now, and from 1 July it will be 150. Mr. Navracsics also stated that further funds are intended for improving disabled access to government service points. In connection with judicial reform, the Minister said that the past three years had seen the adoption of the new Fundamental Law, 57 cardinal Acts and 643 Acts; two of these were outstandingly important codes – the Penal Code and the Civil Code, and a further two codes (those on Criminal Procedure and Civil Procedure) are in preparation.

He added that changes to the judicial structure were signalled by establishment of the National Judicial Office and the National Judicial Council, the Curia, courts of appeal and local courts. Mr. Navracsics confirmed to the Hungarian press agency MTI that he had indeed informally received encouraging signs from Brussels on the process of assigning presiding courts, but he had not yet received a formal response.

The Minister added that ‘When this happens, we will enact the necessary changes.’ He said that an official response is still awaited on the other two issues raised by the European Commission – arising from the European Court of Justice rulings on constitutional amendments related to restrictions on political campaign broadcasts and to payment obligations. On Friday Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet wrote that the European Commission had informally accepted Hungary’s answer related to the assigning of presiding courts.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)