Hungary has accepted the European Commission’s five percent correction proposal in the case of ten EU-funded operative programmes, which was necessary due to deficiencies in earlier contracts, Minister of State heading the Prime Minister’s Office and recently appointed Government Commissioner in charge of the National Development Agency János Lázár announced following talks with European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn in Brussels.

János Lázár estimates that the financial correction amounts to 230-250 million euros. He added that as a result of today’s deal, 2 billion euros of EU financing will again be “in circulation” in Hungary.

The Government has come to a fair agreement with the European Commission, the Minister of State said, adding that the proposed correction was accepted because Hungary will now have the opportunity to apply the amount of the correction before the end of the current fiscal period in 2014.

Similarly, Commissioner Hahn stressed that Hungary would not lose this money if it was able to spend it appropriately by the end of the year. This is in also in the interests of the European Commission. According to Commissioner Hahn, the agreement allows Hungary to reinvest the money in other projects.

Commissioner Johannes Hahn confirmed that payments for suspended EU-funded programmes will recommence within the next few days.

(Prime Minister's Office)