“Serving citizens is the highest priority for local and national governments,” recalled Dr Tibor Navracsics, Minister for Public Administration and Regional Development in Hungary at the 35th Anniversary Conference of the Hungarian National Association of Local Authorities (TÖOSZ), organised in Budapest on 30 April 2024 with the support of the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance at the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
Gathering on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Hungary’s accession to the European Union, and using this occasion to celebrate also the 75th anniversary of the Council of Europe and the 30th anniversary of the Congress, local government stakeholders acknowledged the importance of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, and the Principles of Good Democratic Governance as the basis for pursuing dialogue to address the challenges faced by Hungarian municipalities.
The participants recalled that during these challenging times for the public sector, predictable resourcing, transparency and upholding common European values such as accountability to citizens were essential.
The event was organised within the joint EU/CoE project ‘Local Government Public Finance Development and Municipal Capacity Building in Hungary’, implemented by the Centre of Expertise to advance dialogue on intergovernmental finances. The Conference served as a platform to build on the effective cooperation between central and local authorities in delivering significant outputs of the project such as the design of a data portal for local governments, the 2023 Peer Review and the results of the Local Finance Benchmarking exercise.
