Government plans new evaluation system for EU funding bids

Budapest, March 10 (MTI) – The government will introduce a new evaluation procedure for applications for European Union funds, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s annual opening session on Thursday.

The old procedure of delegating evaluation to third-party organisations will be replaced by a system under which applications will be evaluated by a team of civil servants, he said.

The prime minister said the new evaluation method will be quicker and more transparent.

Orbán proposed that the state should only be allowed to borrow for funding development projects and that public administration spending should only be financed by the state’s own resources. Orbán said this provision will have to be taken into account when drafting the 2017 budget in order to achieve a balanced budget with a zero deficit.