Three years after the change of government, radical changes will be implemented in development policy, Deputy State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office Nándor Csepreghy announced at a press conference on Thursday in Győr.

Mr. Csepreghy said that after seven years the Government has by now accumulated relatively wide experience regarding the expectations of the European Union when it comes to funding allocation.

He added that it is now possible to implement radical changes in the functioning of the development policy system. In 2010, it would not have been possible since the EU is working in 7-year cycles, he pointed out.

Mr. Csepreghy said that in the currently closing EU budget cycle 7 700 development projects have been realised from EU funds amounting to HUF 782 billion in the Western Transdanubian region, which also demonstrates that the region has serious fund absorbing capacity.

The Deputy State Secretary recalled that one of the eleven goals determined by the European Union is to increase the proportion of renewable energy resources to 14.6 percent, and that of the active workers to 75 percent by the end of the next budget cycle. Plans include reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty by 400 thousand and decreasing the ratio of early school leavers to below 10 percent.

Nándor Csepreghy noted that in order to realise these goals, the Government has increased the proportion of resources that may be spent on economic development from 24 to 60 percent, but with a more efficient and decentralised implementation system, state investments may still reach and in some fields they may even exceed the European level.

„An institutional system involving local decision-makers and at the same time ensures central control can make development policy a real success story by 2020, as a result of which Hungary could once again play a leading economic role in the region", the Deputy State Secretary said.

(Prime Minister’s Office)