During the past month, decisions have been made regarding the distribution of 250 billion forints in European Union funding; applicants will be notified during the course of this week, announced Minister of State heading the Prime Minister's Office János Lázár, who was also appointed head of the National Development Agency (NDA) as Government Commissioner last month.

Mr. Lázár said that since having taken over management of the National Development Fund on 1 August the Prime Minister's Office had come to a decision on the distribution of funds made available as a result of exchange rate gains and the oversubscription of tenders. Preparations for the re-launching of paused programmes have also been completed during the month of August.

Decisions have been made regarding the distribution of 117 billion forints in funding for SME development, large job creation projects, research and development projects and IT development of the SME sector within the framework of the Economic Operative Programme. A decision was also brought during the past few weeks on the funding of projects with the involvement of venture capital: the NDA has distributed a total of 24 billion forints for this purpose.

The fate of 72 billion forints had also been decided within the framework of the various Regional Operative Programmes, providing funding for the realisation of tourism-related projects, for example, as well as for road construction, healthcare, urban rehabilitation and public transport projects.

Energy-saving projects planned by Churches have received 10 billion forints in funding, with district heating development projects also receiving more funding. In addition, a further 65 billion forints will be distributed over the coming weeks to fund other renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

Healthcare infrastructure has so far been awarded 50 billion forints in funding, with decisions on the allocation of further funding totalling several tens of billions of forints expected in the near future.

János Lázár expects tough negotiations in Brussels with relation to the utilisation of European Union resources. He will meet with Commissioner for EU Regional Policy Johannes Hahn for the first time on 9 September in his new role as Government Commissioner.

The EU has issues with thirteen of the fifteen operative programmes currently underway in Hungary within the framework of the 2007-2013 financial period. The fines issued as a result could be as high as 25 percent of the development funding for the projects in question, which could mean the loss of hundreds of billions of forints in funding for Hungary. According to the Minister of State, it would be an achievement to reduce the level of penalties to under 10 percent. 8200 billion forints in development funding has been available to Hungary for the 2007-2013 financial period, and decisions have already been made regarding the distribution of 95 percent of this sum.

(Prime Minister’s Office)