Mid-Term Economic Programmes and the Use of EU Funds in Hungary

The paper provides an overview of the three main mid-term economic programmes of Hungary: the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), designed for identifying the main development objectives and for the efficient use of (EU and domestic) financial resources, the Convergence Programme (CP), the fulfilment of which is crucial for getting closer to the introduction of the euro, and the National (Lisbon) Reform Programme (NRP) having macroeconomic, microeconomic and employment objectives to reach in order to modernise the economy and the society. The paper shows the most important linkages, contradictions and overlaps between the three programmes, stressing the need for permanent coordination. Ibudget corrections are in the foreground right now, but is crucial that they should be followed by real reforms: the CP foresees such reforms, and some of them are already designed and will be introduced as soon as in 2007. In the design of such reforms, the NSRF and the NRP have a very important role. Hungary should not handle any of the above programmes as just “homeworks “, which can be solved by the creation of a certain amount of official papers, because the implementation of these programmes is of crucial importance for the economic and social development of Hungary in the coming years.