Hungarian government allocates EUR 1.3bn for border town developments

Budapest, November 9 (MTI) – The government has allocated close to 400 billion forints (EUR 1.3bn) in European Union funds for development programmes in Hungary’s border towns during the 2014-20 funding period, the PM’s office said on Wednesday.

The funds will mainly be spent on infrastructure, environmental and health-care developments, Zsigmond Perényi, deputy state secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, said. The money can also be used to fund education, tourism and research, he added.

Perényi said the biggest infrastructure developments would be carried out in towns on the Hungarian-Slovak border. These will entail the construction of six pedestrian and bicycle bridges, he said, adding that the projects had already been agreed upon by the two countries’ governments.

Unlike the 2007-13 funding period, small and medium-sized firms will also be eligible to apply for cross-border development funds in the current cycle, he said. Up until the current funding period, companies were ineligible to apply for monies allocated for cross-border EU projects, Perényi said. Nor could these type of funds be spent on economic development projects, he added. In previous funding periods, monies allocated for cross-border projects had been available primarily for churches, local councils, civil groups or schools, he said.

Source: MTI