The results of the Hungarian Village Renewal Awards 2013 have been published.

The regional juries passed their choices for entries of the two best settlements in each category to the Village Renewal Expert Committee. The Committee was made up of representatives delegated by the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Rural Development and from the state chief architects, the Village Section of the Hungarian Urban Planning Association and the Association of Hungarian Architects.

In addition to studying the entries chosen by the regional juries, the Commission also examined the village renewal activities of the finalist settlements through on site visits and consultations. The Commission visited nine of the settlements that reached the finals from ten regional levels, to examine their village renewal activities on site and discuss the work performed. The remaining village recently held a village renewal meeting, during which it presented its work in detail.

Having examined the entries and visited the villages in question, the Commission determined that the regional juries had done a thorough job, and to all intents and purposes accepted the order of merit determined by the juries.

The Committee also agreed that there was no significant difference between regions, and so the award categories were determined in regional order. The only exception was the Southern Great Plains region, where the Commission rewarded the village of Derekegyháza, which came second at regional level, by putting into the same category as the winner in view of its excellent performance.

In view of the fact that only 10 villages reached the finals instead of the maximum of 14, the Committee decided to also include the village of Iszkaszentgyörgy among the winners. The village came third in its region, but submitted an excellent entry and is extremely active participant of the village renewal movement. The village will not be eligible for Hungarian National Rural Network (HNRN) funding.

Local governments that did not reach the national finals will receive a certificate of merit. Unfortunately, one settlement did not meet the eligibility criteria (it does not have a suitable settlement development plan), and so was excluded from the detailed adjudication process.

The work of the juries was made difficult by the fact that such differing settlements had to be compared; entries included the country's perhaps most favourably located settlement, a village that had been unpopulated for 20 years, a community that is currently designated as a periphery inhabited area, and settlements differing in size from a population of 4500 to only 18 permanent residents. They have all achieved success from very different beginning and through the application of different methods.

This was also true when deciding on the winner, who was chosen from among the first placed regional finalists. The vote resulted in a split decision, but the Committee eventually decided to reward the village renewal activities of a settlement that had begun from an impossible situation and which was set for liquidation, but which has since become a well-known model settlement that was among the winners in the 2nd category two years ago and which the Ministry of Rural Development had presented with a special award.

The award ceremony and village renewal conference will take place in the village of Újszilvás, in Pest County. In addition to the village renewal awards announced within the framework of the competition, special awards will also be presented by the Ministry of Rural Development, the Village Section of the Hungarian Urban Planning Association and the Association of Hungarian Architects. At the conference, the winning settlements will hold short lectures on their work and will have the opportunity to present their village renewal activities on separate stands.

Congratulations to all participants on the results they have achieved within the field of village renewal. Everyone who took part in the preparation of entries and undertook this challenge deserves praise.

The overall winner of the competition and the award for the most outstanding quality realisation of its village development programme is the village of Komlóska, in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County. Awards for sustainable village renewal will be presented to Derekegyház (Bács-Kiskun), Környe (Komárom-Esztergom), Petőfiszállás (Bács-Kiskun), Rábapatona (Győr-Moson-Sopron) and Tihany (Veszprém), while awards for outstanding activities within several fields of village renewal go to Gyöngyössolymos (Heves), Gyűrűfű (Baranya), Iszkaszentgyörgy (Fejér), Megyer (Veszprém) and Nagypáli (Zala).

(Ministry of Interior, Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)