Funding for NGOs has grown by hundreds of millions of euros

Budapest, April 12 (MTI) – Since 2010, annual funding for civil organisations has increased from 140 billion forints (EUR 450m) to 202 billion and associated red tape has been cut, the daily Magyar Idők said on Wednesday, citing a government official.

Quoting human resources ministry deputy state secretary for ethnic and civil society relations Attila Fülöp, the paper drew a distinction between “real civil organisations” and ones that “rant and bluster”.

“This is why we must show the enormous, devoted work which several thousand associations and foundations carry out, typically on a voluntary basis,” Fülöp told the paper.

He noted that a decision was imminent concerning bids submitted to the National Cooperation Fund. Accordingly, civil society organisations engaged in genuine, value-adding work which serves the wider public stand to benefit, he said, as opposed to groups serving the interests of foreign organisations.

Bence Rétvári, state secretary at the ministry of human resources, told the paper that, thanks to the establishment of the Civil Information Centre, organisations will be selected in tenders region by region. These groups will operate in a uniform way and will therefore face the same tasks, problems, challenges. This will make the system credible, he added.

Source: MTI