Structural Funds in Hungary for 2014-2020

In late August the European Commission adopted a « partnership agreement with Hungary on the mobilization of the Structural and EU investment Funds for growth and employment for the period 2014-2020.

Specifically, the partnership agreement defines the strategy to be implemented for the optimal use of the Structural and European investment Funds. Within this document, each Member State established priorities and investment objectives for the next seven years to contribute to the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy, namely sustainable, inclusive and smart growth.

European Structural and Investment Funds include the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), the Cohesion Fund, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

This agreement will provide the country with a total of 21.9  billion euro under the cohesion policy (including the first three funds) for the period 2014-2020. In addition, Hungary will also receive a grant of € 3.45  billion for rural development and a budget of 39 million euro will be available for the maritime sector and fishing.

The financial breakdown is as follows:
– 15 billion euro for less developed regions (Közép-Dunántúl, Nyugat-Dunántúl, Dél-Dunántúl, Észak-Magyarország, Észak-Alföld and Dél-Alföld)
– 436.7 million euro for more developed regions
– 6  billion euro  through the Cohesion Fund
– 361.8  million euro  for European Territorial Cooperation
– 49.8 million euro for Youth Employment initiative

Hungary has taken benefits from ERDF yet by 25.3 billion euro between 2007 and 2013. The fund investments helped Hungary to  create more than 75 000 jobs, to assist the start-up of more than 1 250 businesses, to  provide direct investment aids to more than 32 000 SME projects and almost 50% of the Hungarian population benefit from improved urban transport.

The Cohesion policy in Hungary aims to enhance the precedent objectives while setting new priorities:
– Promoting employment through economic development, employment, education and social inclusion policies
– Increasing energy and resource efficiency
– Tackling social and demographic challenges
– Improving the competitiveness and global performance of the business sector
– Implementation of local and territorial development aimed at promoting economic growth.

All Members States have now presented their Partnership Agreements to the Commission and results of the consultation process are still expected for some of them.