Specific projects in Hungary

Local Government Public Finance Development and Municipal Capacity Building In Hungary

 What is the goal?

The project aims to support strengthening the administrative and financial capacity of the municipalities in Hungary, by assisting the Hungarian authorities to:

• Improve the institutional framework related to the good democratic governance of municipalities;
• Improve awareness, knowledge and skills of relevant authorities on good democratic governance.

 How will the project contribute?

In particular, the project will contribute through:

• Provision of Peer Review and Policy Advice containing concrete recommendations to the Hungarian authorities on:
  • Fiscal decentralisation;
  • Institutional and fiscal framework at local level.
• Design of the information system component related to financial data of local governments within the Local Government Data Platform, in order to provide access to a comprehensive and structured set of data and allow their analysis, including benchmarks and performance indicators.
• Supporting the local and regional authorities in improving the delivery of public services to their citizens, by implementing the following capacity-building tools of the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance:
  • Local Finance Benchmarking for local authorities, Public Ethics Benchmarking and Performance Management, Risk Management and Internal Audit - to develop national benchmarks for standard municipal services and local finances, and enable the best use of available resources at local level;
  • European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE) - to increase knowledge of the selected municipalities on the 12 Principles of Good Democratic Governance;
  • Leadership Academy Programme – to build institutional leadership skills within the local authorities.

 Who benefits from the project?

• The Hungarian National Association of Local Authorities;
• Hungarian municipalities, their staff and institutional structures;
• Public authorities such as the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources, the Ministry of Innovation and Technology and the National State Treasury;
• Other stakeholders: relevant organisations or institutions in Hungary that have particular expertise and experience in the topics of the project and access to a relevant network of national experts;
• Hungarian citizens and society at large.

 How will the project work?

The Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise for Good Governance will implement the project in coordination with the main beneficiary – The Hungarian National Association of Local Authorities (TÖOSZ), the main donor - DG REFORM of the European Commission, Hungarian implementing partner institutions as well as other relevant stakeholders.

• The Centre of Expertise will provide the international expertise in the project activities and ensure alignment of the work with the relevant European standards on democratic governance. It will also share the best European practice in local governance drawn from the inter-governmental European Committee on Democracy and Governance.
• The Hungarian implementing partners will ensure the local expertise necessary for contextualising the recommendations and capacity-building tools and handle logistical arrangements as needed.

 Budget and duration

• The Project is co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Commission
• The total budget of the project is € 666 667 EUR
• The project will run from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2024

More information about the cooperation between EU/EC DG REFORM and the Council of Europe is available from the Directorate of Programme Co-ordination.

• Peer review report 2023 on Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, Data Access and Use, and Local-Central Policy Dialogue (+ Hungarian version)