Hungary has drawn down EU funds at an outstanding pace
In the new development cycle of 2014–2020, 71 percent of the funds available to Hungary were disbursed by Brussels by the end of last year, compared to the 63 percent average in the member states, according to data from the European Commission. As we have already entered into 2022, at first glance, not only the international but also the domestic partial result may seem ominous, except that the cycle is seven plus three years, and support amounts can be drawn by the end of 2023.
The situation improved last year, as at the end of last year the EU average stood at 55 per cent and the Hungarian indicator at 61, so the advantage has risen from 6 to 8 percentage points since then.
It is important to know the timing of sending development accounts to the EU body for compensation, depending on the central budget needs of the state. Hungary usually had a larger drawdown of hundreds of billions of forints in the middle and end of the year, most recently in November.
In the period 2014–2020, which turns into the target line, Hungary will be able to farm from 31.77 billion euros, of which 4.94 billion will be national contribution and 26.83 billion will be provided by the European Union.
In the meantime, both indicators have crawled higher, with Brussels initially providing € 25.01 billion, which the Hungarian state had to top up with € 4.63 billion. Thus, the € 1.01 billion run in at the end of the year may have stuck at 71 percent. The committee has so far disbursed EUR 19.07 billion of its share, which – since then it has been pushing the 370 forint against the euro – remains at HUF 6,674 billion at the 350 exchange rate used in previous calculations – compared to mid-November. with 6,321 billion jobs. The current result of 71 percent shows a true value that in the last year and a half, it is often 10-12. Hungary ranked sixth in these ranks, but is now tied for sixth with the Greeks and Lithuanians. Even in the autumn, Hungary was in third place, now it is 2 percentage points behind Portugal and Estonia, which share the third degree of the imaginary podium. Narrowing the circle to the Visegrád region, with the strong Polish hair, they climbed to 72 percent by the end of the year, making it the fifth, followed by the Czechs with 70, and 55 percent, with only six new members.
Hungary was still at the forefront of the cycle in terms of the resources allocated, but this is not necessarily the case, as a commitment and the rate of funding could hit the budget. This maneuver is not a problem in Hungary either, nor is the fact that in the January – November period the central subsystem of general government closed with a deficit of HUF 3,931.3 billion, which corresponds to 171.8 per cent of the total annual appropriation. Rather than subsidy money, this is due to the fact that, out of the Covid crisis, the government has subordinated everything to the restart of the economy, including fiscal policy. At the same time, it is indicative that while Hungary has only allowed itself to take over 6% of the risk and burden of its own budget, this proportion is 27% in Greece, 24% in Romania and 19% in Croatia.
In parallel with the closing of the old cycle of 2014–2020, the opening of 2021–2027 is also in full swing. An important forward-looking development is that Hungary submitted the partnership agreement to the European Commission in the old year. The Prime Minister has predicted that the government’s goal is to make Hungary one of the five most livable countries in the European Union by 2030. At the work organization led by Gergely Gulyás, it was emphasized that after negotiations with the EU body and social consultation, Hungary will be one of the first to formally submit the partnership agreement to the European Commission. The document sets out the developments for which the domestic co-financing, which can be used in the period 201-27, will spend more than HUF 900 billion on the country. In order to help catch up, at least 65 percent of the resources will be used in the four most favored Hungarian regions. The economic development program continues to receive the largest share of EU funding, and a significant number of applications will continue to support investment in small and medium-sized enterprises and research and development and innovation in the coming years.
The government is spending more money than ever before to strengthen rural Hungary and Hungarian settlements.
The amount spent on the operational program has been increased to 20 areas of the total envelope, supporting the implementation of local needs and plans. The transport development and the environment and energy programs will play a key role in promoting the modernization of public and rail transport, as well as the spread of renewable energy. It was emphasized at the Prime Minister’s Office that the development of public education, social inclusion programs, health and social investments are also financed by a separate operational program and the Hungarian recovery plan. An important change for the 2014–2020 cycle is that Budapest and Pest counties no longer form a region, therefore no separate territorial program is being prepared for Central Hungary, so Pest county can get much more resources than before. The submission of the partnership agreement and then the operational programs for the first step, so that the resources available to Hungary in the new development future in 2021–27 can be drawn down.