scholarly journals European Funds and the Evaluation of Their Application in the Northern Great Plain Region

2005 ◽  
pp. 191-198
Author(s):  
János Attila Nagy

Presently, the process of regionalization is slowly progressing in Hungary. The regional institutional system is young and the institutional experiences are limited. The Hungarian regional development agencies are operated with a limited number of personnel and their budget is only a fraction of EU regional agencies of similar size. There is no unequivocal cooperation between regional development agencies and county development agencies. In the absence of these, the strategical objectives of the region cannot be aligned and the application of consistent development policies cannot be achieved. In the past five-six years the supports from EU Pre-Accession Funds, along with the new tools of regional development policies, have all contributed to the development of the North Great Plain Region. Phare projects – beside supporting development – have played a significant role in forming the approach of individuals who are actively involved in regional development, in promoting cooperation among cross-border and other regions, as well as in preparing the regions to accept EU structural funds. Prior to the May 1st, 2004 EU accession of Hungary, the North Great Plain Region received 24-25% in direct regional development funds in the Nineties. The support per capita in the case of TFC, TEKI and CÉDE has exceeded the national average. The North Great Plain Region has received support from investment type agricultural supports, the Employment Fund and the Touristical Directives that well exceeded the national average, from the sectoral resource funds. However, the applicants of the North Great Plain Region have received little support in the case of environmental, water management and especially road development supports. About 200 applications have been submitted for the SAPARD calls nationally, 32 of these were from the North Great Plain Region. The significance of cooperation among sub-regions is demonstrated by the fact that, except for 15 settlements in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, all have submitted an application. The efforts of inhabitants is highlighted by the high number of submitted applications, as well as by the significant degree of own contribution. Still, the GDP of the North Great Plain Region has not increased, the rate and tendency of unemployment does not sufficiently reflect the positive effect of supports. The Regional Development Directive has provided support for the development of many small- and medium size enterprises, but their effect did not ensure a sustained economic growth.The greatest difficulty is that the number of dedicated professionals who are skilled in regional politics and regional development is few. However, advantages of our EU accession can only be exploited if a group of highly skilled professionals is provided on local, county, regional and national level as well. Thus, we need a group of professionals who are informed about the European Union, the EU support forms and most of all about the operation of Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds to establish the suitable institutional background for professionally handling the funds obtained from the EU, to prepare the professional documents to access the funds and to generate development projects to efficiently use the funds as well as establishing connections with the institutions of the EU. Appropriate share from funds coming from the EU is only possible if the country, certain regions, counties and sub-regions can achieve rapid results in the areas listed above.

2007 ◽  
pp. 158-163
Author(s):  
Beáta Bittner

Before Hungary joined the European Union – in order to gain access to the sources of Structural Funds and to create the expected regional information service – a build up of five-level territorial system was indispensable. Both in the EU and in Hungary, there are significant differences among regions. The aim of regional policy is to reduce differences regarding development and living standards, in order to guarantee a reasonable living standard and income for every region’s inhabitants in the EU.In Hungary, during the last decade, the effects of regional difference grew. While the advantage of the leading capital and its agglomeration and the eastern and western parts of Transdanubia was growing, meanwhile the most undeveloped areas' rates of development remained under the mean. The underdeveloped areas are in the northeastern part and in Southern Transdanubia. The developmental differences lead to such great social asymmetries, that these simply beg for remedying.In this study, I would like to present the sub-regions of the North Great Plain Region and uncover the possible reasons of the developmental differences.


2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ferry

This article charts the evolving role of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in Poland. It argues that changes to regional institutional and policy environments, linked to processes of regionalisation, EU accession, and the administration of European Union structural funds, have prompted increasing diversification of RDA activities. Moreover, questions of democratic accountability and economic efficiency are becoming increasingly pointed. Has regionalisation boosted the democratic accountability and regional orientation of agencies? Has administrative reform simplified agencies' delivery of development programmes? What influence has the administration of structural funds had on this? The article explores these issues, stressing generally that theoretical analyses of RDA activities must take increasing account of agency “positioning,” i.e., their role and purpose in an increasingly crowded and complex regional policy arena. Future scenarios for the evolution of RDAs in Poland are also outlined.


2014 ◽  
pp. 57-65
Author(s):  
János Nagy ◽  
Gergely Harsányi ◽  
Orsolya Jánosy ◽  
Endre Harsányi ◽  
Orsolya Nagy

It is a widely accepted practice in the European Union to break down countries into regions according to their stage of development, their cultural and economic characteristics. The basis of this methodology is the EU-conform MOTS system, which distinguishes territorial units on five levels. Besides the MOTS system, Hungary uses another system, too, which is the basis of our public administration, and whose roots go back to the times of King Saint Stephen: the county system. In Hungary, developmental decisions are taken by a county’s general assembly; at the same time, from an economic point of view the characteristics and competitive advantages of a county can be defined more precisely than those of a region. Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County and Hajdu-Bihaur County may be described with completely different characteristics, albeit both of them are part of the North Great Plain Region. On a county level economically important and justified developmental areas may be mapped more precisely. Hajdu-Bihar County is the 4th most populous county in Hungary. With 80.2% of the population living in cities, the county is significantly urbanized. 2010 statistics show that the birth rate per 1,000 people in the county is practically the same as the birth rate of the country and that of the North Great Plain Region. Following the trends in developed countries, mothers now tend to give birth in an older age. Almost half (44.5%) of the children in Hajdu-Bihar County are born after their mother’s 30th birthday. The general health condition of the population of Hajdu-Bihar County can be described with various indicators. In terms of medical and hospital care no difference can be observed between regional and national data, the county’s health care does not straggle behind. In sum, with the health care system of the county, estimated life expectancy of men is higher than the regional average, and in case of women it is higher than both the regional and national average, according to the given year’s mortality. Children’s ratio among the county’s population is 15.9%, which is more than 1% over the national average. The ratio is higher in case of girls and boys alike. The income of the county’s population depends not only on labour income but also on social benefits. According to the analysis, the proportion of old-age pensioners and those receiving pension-like allowances within the whole population is somewhat lower in the county than the national average. The number of children receiving child-welfare and daytime care is prominent in the county. The number of families and children receiving child-care allowance has not changed significantly in recent years. All important elements of social benefits have increased in the last decade. The quality of life of the county’s population is largely affected by the presence (or absence) of basic infrastructure in their environment. Research conducted at the settlements of the county shows that currently the greater part of the population has access to basic public utility services which form part of everyday services. Although they affect the general quality of life, the network of roads and passenger traffic have their real significance in terms of economic development. The county’s modern, paved road-system had already been built earlier. Roads and pavements in inner-city areas have been paved up to 70%. The technical condition of roads and pavements can seriously impede the population’s mobility and it may hinder the development of certain settlements and districts.


Author(s):  
Ahmet İncekara ◽  
Burcu Kılınç Savrul

Regional policy of the European Union (EU) is implemented in order to improve welfare and quality of life in specific regions of EU member countries, minimize inter-regional income differences and restructure less developed industrial areas. regions of the EU countries has urban and regional development differences in themselves. Regional policies have gained importance in the process of EU enlargement. Increases regional disparities has been observed to occur with the first expansion. Although the tools that the Community could use for regional inequality were initially limited, they began to increase over the years in the process of development of regional policy of the EU. In this respect, this study will focus primarily on the EU regional development policies, the structural funds in line with the measures taken to ensure economic and social cohesion in EU countries and European Investment Bank and the new tools such as community tool will be discussed.


Author(s):  
Michaela Staníčková ◽  
Lukáš Melecký

Regional development policies based on local potential triggers a shift in the economic structure of territories. Exogenous and endogenous factors determine potential of regional development and it is necessary to use different indicators and methods to its evaluation. For the paper purpose, it is required to define metropolitan and peripheral functions as well as urban areas in the form of geographic models, depicting their spatial distribution in the European Union (EU). Nowadays, regions are increasingly becoming the drivers of the economy. All regions possess development opportunities – however, use these options enough, and hence the competitiveness of regions must be efficient enough. The paper focuses on dividing the EU NUTS 2 regions based on geographic models of the European economy into efficient and inefficient ones and identifying an optimal benchmark for inefficient regions as a strategy for enhancing their economic structure to measure regional efforts and progress.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 679-683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ward

Britain's coalition government, elected in 2010, is making radical changes to the institutions for local economic development in England, scrapping New Labour's Regional Development Agencies and setting up weak, non-statutory Local Enterprise Partnerships. However, sharp regional differences remain between the North and the South, and the new arrangements are unlikely to achieve the coalition's avowed aim of rebalancing the economy.


2009 ◽  
pp. 23-27
Author(s):  
István Góczi

This study summarises the observations about the operation of the first Hungarian model-like biodiesel plant (which has a producer background). In order to efficiently and safely operate the applied technology and to produce biodiesel that conforms to international standards, it was indispensable to apply the scientific results in practice and to develop a cooperation with the University of Debrecen (Centre of Agricultural Sciences and Engineering). The biodiesel plant has a significant importance from the aspects of the Eastern tri-border area and the North Great Plain region. 


Author(s):  
Gábor Halmai

On 12 September the European Parliament—for the first time ever—launched Art 7 TEU proceedings against Hungary. The decision was based on a report denouncing various violations of EU values by Viktor Orbán’s government. But triggering Art 7 TEU came too late, and meant also too little, because besides the important political function of naming and shaming Hungary as a violator of EU values, the chances of reaching the corrective arm of the procedure are extremely low. Hence, the chapter argues, instead of Art 7 alternative means from the toolkits of the EU may be more effective. Infringement actions as alternatives have not really worked so far in the case of Hungary, but cutting off EU structural funds for regional development or other forms of assistance as a value conditionality approach has not really been tried as yet.


Author(s):  
Frank Peck ◽  
David McGuinness

The Government's White Paper on Enterprise, Skills and Innovation (DTI and DfEE, 2001) requires Regional Development Agencies to develop their cluster strategies further, to include partnerships involving higher education. This paper examines these policy intentions in relation to northern England, and incorporates the results of in-depth interviews with policy-makers from RDAs, DTI, DfES and northern Government Offices. Early cluster development has evidently been influenced by existing sector development strategies and the need for inclusivity in regional partnerships. Clusters have been defined broadly, but engagement with universities has required greater focus on specific regional expertise. The authors question the merit of pursuing specialised clusters in isolation at a regional scale; more effective engagement at inter-regional level is suggested for developing effective cluster strategies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bennett C. Thomas

Core–periphery analysis is vital to an understanding of the European Union (EU) and regional development. The European Economic Community (EEC), which would eventually become the EU, was formed in 1957 in order to promote progressive economic integration. Recognizing that there were depressed regions within both peripheral and core nation-states, the EC adopted a programme with the goal of bringing those regions into convergence. Its programme is essentially a liberal centre–periphery model similar to the one proposed by Friedman. Many of the nation-states within the EC also have their own regional policies and programmes regarding intervention within their own spatial boundaries. To present an approach for comparison this article will focus on two examples of regional policy: Britain's attitude toward regional development in the North and the German programme for integrating East Germany.


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