Analysis of the implementation of community subsidies against the public administration of new member states, especially the V4 countries

Tóth, Tamás – Naárné Tóth, Zsuzsanna

Keywords: subsidy, public administration, utilisation of funds

The institutional background for the Community regional policy was set forth in legal regulations. Setting up and operating the institutional system was a priority topic at the accession negotiations as well. The required implementation system was built on the existing system of public administration in every country, whether old or new Member State. It needs to be pointed out, however, that while the old Member States – and the Community regulations themselves – have existed and developed in an environment infused with the theory of ‘New Public Management’ over the last 25 to 35 years, the new Member States were running a rather bureaucratic public administration system even at the turn of the millennium. The aspects of being a service provider and of focusing on goals were less prominent.
Despite the fact that the new Member States were under significant time pressure when setting up their institutional systems, and the culture of public administration is still evolving, utilisation of Community subsidies – from a strictly financial perspective – was not hindered. The V4 countries are ahead of more than one old member state in terms of the proportion of funds called down. Therefore the claim that we are unable to utilise the Community funds seems to be overturned (of course the legal closing of the programmes by the Community has not yet been performed).

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