"The constitutional regulations regard domestic water assets as a natural treasure, and its management is a challenge for us all", said Minister for Rural Development Sándor Fazekas on Tuesday in the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County town of Fegyvernek at the first stop in the series of public debates on the latest National Rural Development Strategy.

In his speech, the Minister highlighted the fact that although certain countries have huge economic potential, water stocks are finite throughout, and this restricts future opportunities. In this regard, Hungary is in a relatively favourable position in the Carpathian Basin, he noted.

Mr. Fazekas put the question: what guarantees that a programme such as this can be realised, when "the shelves of planning offices and the records of various authorities are full of similar programmes"?

As he went on to explain, one of the guarantees is that a good programme must be developed, and a second is that the Government and the Ministry of Rural Development is open to all solutions that facilitate the completion of the tasks ahead through concrete ideas and concepts. The opportunity is also available to concentrate European Union funding, the opportunities that lie within the Start public employment program and funding from the state on this particular plan, he stated.

According to Minister Fazekas, the Strategy includes three groups of measures. Of these, the short-term measures implemented before 2014 include the completion of ongoing water management projects and planning for the European Union's next financial period. The second, which spans the period until 2021, incorporates the exploitation of the financial opportunities afforded by the EU's next seven-year term, while the third period until 2027 is expected to utilize an already stabilised water management institute system and successfully distribute available EU resources in the most efficient way possible.

The full text of the proposed Strategy, the individual chapters of which have been elaborated as a starting point by prominent experts, is now available online (in Hungarian).

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