Index – Economy – Tibor Navraxx told the truth about EU money

The three commissioners with whom I sat at the negotiating table basically defined the issues, today’s scenario – he began his assessment of Tibor Navrax, who is responsible for the use of EU funds in Orbán’s fifth government as Minister of Regional Development. Before that, he traveled to Brussels on March 8, but this time he consulted with Elisa Ferreira and María Gabriel along with Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn. While the former file consists of cohesion and reforms, the latter brings together education issues in the European Commission.

We send a message to Brussels

Navraxx said that he and Johannes Hahn mainly discussed issues related to the organization of public interest institutions, and how we can achieve that these universities held by the Foundation can continue their participation in Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programs as soon as possible without interruption. They agreed on the points of contention so far and have remained so

And what is there to discuss? In the case of conflict of interest rules, it is necessary to specify which positions can be combined with the membership of the Board of Trustees, and which cannot be combined.

According to the current situation, the light is red if there is someone

• minister,
• Minister of Foreign Affairs,
• political director to the prime minister,
• government commissioner
• or parliamentarian.

However, the ban does not apply to members of the European Parliament and mayors. The role of employees in administrative positions in the public administration still needs to be clarified, including the position of Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers of State.

The discussion is not mainly about states

The term of office is also questionable, as 4, 5 or 6 years have already been mentioned. According to Navraxxx, the agreement cannot depend on this, as well as on the fact that the membership of the Board of Trustees can only be renewed once. On the other hand, it is still necessary to determine how long it will take the appointed person to fill a similar position again if the position is terminated. We have been talking about this issue for half a year, a year and two years.

The Minister is of the opinion that this should not be a factor for which they either get stuck. He expects a quick deal, presupposing that by the second half of April, he can be before Parliament. As he said, police and rule of law proceedings are taking place in parallel, and from May they can move to the finish line, so that all conflicts in Brussels can be resolved by the summer.

This has also been discussed with the EU Commissioners

In addition to the future of regional politics, Tibor Navrax discussed with Elisa Ferreira the tasks that await Hungary when it assumes the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in July-December 2024. Interestingly, the ninth Cohesion Report is expected to be published at the same time as the Hungarian Presidency.

At the third meeting, he negotiated with EU Commissioner for Education Maria Gabriel about the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programmes, which Hahn had taken over structurally, and clarified the relationship between Hungarian universities and their union partners.

(Cover photo: Tibor Navraxxx, December 13, 2022. Photo: Tibor Ellis/MTI)