00:00For the view from the former Deputy Mayor of Budapest, who now happens to be the President
00:03of the European Committee of Regions right here in Brussels, we can bring in Kata Tuto.
00:08She's just back from Spain, where she received a very prestigious European prize
00:12from the Spanish King. So congratulations for that. And thank you for joining us here
00:16on the programme. But first, now that we have you, we have to talk about Hungary.
00:19As the former Deputy Mayor of Budapest, are you confident Hungary will get these funds
00:24from the Commission and be able to take off that 27 super milestones that they have to reach?
00:30Nobody can be confident. I think what we have to do as Hungarians and the Hungarian government
00:35and of course, all of the authorities, I'm still in the Budapest City Council, we have to do everything
00:41in our power to make it possible. This is what we can promise that we will do everything that the
00:49money arrives, both cohesion funds and both the recovery and resiliency funds, both the grants
00:56and both the loans. We have the projects ready. Budapest contributed a lot with a lot of green
01:03transition projects, energy efficiency projects, public transport projects. So we try to do our
01:10best, but of course, it's up to cooperation.
01:13Indeed. And of course, apart from the recovery funds, as you mentioned, there's 6.3 billion euros
01:17in cohesion funds for regional development that are also frozen. What impact is that having
01:22on the ground there in Hungary? We are really suffering. I mean, it's not just Budapest is
01:28suffering a lot, but Budapest has been suffering in the past 16 years and especially in the past years
01:36when cohesion funds stopped arriving. Because, OK, what are we doing from cohesion funds? We are
01:42investing in public transport. We renovated the metro lines. We built water protection,
01:49flood protection system, clean water, circular economy elements. So, and of course, all of our
01:58regions, and it's not just the Hungarian regions, all of our European regions grow and get stronger
02:06through cohesion policy. It's a very important mainstreaming tool of the European Union because
02:11this is how it works. It's a decentralized investment tool. It is designed by the local
02:17authorities, by regions, implemented by the regions, and it helps grow in the common directions of digital
02:26transformation, climate transformation, social cohesion. It's a very important investment tool,
02:32and we suffered a lot by not receiving it.
02:35And just looking ahead, of course, European affairs ministers are gathering in Brussels today
02:39for a big battle over the EU's long-term budget of 1.8 trillion euro. We know wealthy countries want
02:44to shrink it, though. What's in it now for the regions? What's your stake here for the Committee of
02:48the Regions?
02:50The stake is really high. We have been very vocal on all of our concerns about the new budget. OK,
02:57what is the big concern that what we see two things that concerns us? That there is a very big
03:03wave of centralization because of this crisis mode, because this is what happens when there's a constant
03:09crisis. This is the instinct that you centralize power, you centralize resources, and this is what we see
03:15in the budget. So traditional important European policies like agricultural policy, which is a food
03:23security policy. So it's not just a general agricultural policy. It is what provides Europe food security, so farmers
03:31don't stop making food in Europe. And the other big policy is cohesion policy, which is a decentralized
03:39investment policy, which is designed by the regions. It's a European regional policy. What's in the new budget?
03:47That the proposal disconnects the cohesion funds from the single market, although they are attached together because
03:54the idea is that together we have the market. We grow together. We are stronger together. But how the world
04:02manifests
04:03itself, if there's no intervention, the strong would get stronger and the weak weaker. But we want convergence. We want
04:11everybody to grow together. This is why we reinvest part of the gains of the single market. This is cohesion
04:17policy. We fight for a stronger cohesion policy. But of course, not everyone agrees with you. And that's why the
04:22battle
04:22is just getting started on that budget. Cate Tutu, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much for
04:27joining us
04:28here on Europe today.
Comments