Navracsics: Local governments, regional government offices must work more closely

Navracsics said 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-Abauj-Zemplen 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 own political independence underpinned the point.