Tibor Navracsics, the minister of public administration and regional development, said cooperation between local governments and regional offices of the central government “must be brought even closer”.
Speaking in Miskolc, in northern Hungary, on Monday, Navracsics said the cooperation of the two branches “must be seamless” when fresh European Union funds released to Hungary “are put in service of regional development policy”. Cooperation was already “excellent”, he said, adding that Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén was one of Hungary’s most highly performing counties. He noted that students and researchers of foundational universities have been excluded from the Erasmus and Horizon Europe programmes. Navracsics said he had asked the politically non-aligned mayor of Miskolc, who sits on the supervisory board of the city’s university, to demonstrate to European decision-makers that foundational universities are independent of party politics, adding that the mayor’s political independence underpinned the point.