Hungary Unitary state

Reforms

The Hungarian government has launched a movement to recentralise competences in favour of the central state.

The government has adopted a series of measures, mostly aimed at recentralising competences and keeping a closer watch over local activities. Accordingly, the 175 old administrative districts representing the state, abolished in 1984 (járás), were re-established as of 1 January 2013 and were charged with managing certain public services as well as carrying out administrative supervision of local governments.

At the same time, county councils were divested of some of their competences, for example the management of public institutions such as secondary schools, hospitals, social centres, cultural centres or museums. However, they did acquire competences relating to spatial planning and territorial development. Municipalities with less than 3 000 inhabitants were affected by the reforms as well, and were also stripped of the right to manage most public institutions.

Certain legislative provisions also address inter-municipal associations. Even if all member municipalities retain their legal existence, local governments of less than 2 000 inhabitants must close their municipal offices and join with others in order to form a group of at least seven municipalities or 2 000 inhabitants, thus offering a single administrative contact to the population. Moreover, water management agencies can now only provide services to populations made up of at least 50 000 people.

Local self-government in Hungary:

The current crisis seems partly to blame as the motivation behind the government’s drive to recentralize and streamline costs. The reforms undertaken seem to suggest that the autonomy of the municipalities and counties is becoming increasingly precarious.

KEY REFORMS

• 1871: act XVIII on community organisation.
• 1950: local administration reforms introduce two categories: the community (község) (rural) and the city (város) (urban).
• 1990: act LXV on local government subdivides the landscape into the local level (municipalities) and the intermediary level (counties).
• 1996: act XXI on land-use planning and regional government.
• 2011: the new local administration law recentralises some local powers.
• 1 January 2013: the 175 districts (járás) – the devolved central government representative level abolished in 1984 – are reinstated.
• Devolved central government districts (járás) reinstated
• County councils and some municipalities stripped of public entity management powers
• Land-use planning, development and European fund management powers decentralised to county councils
• Municipalities with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants forced to pool municipal offices
• New water board operating rules introduced