From the 2026 budget audit
170 million Ft for cross-border co-operation structures whose members could fund their own participation.
Hungarian local authorities participating in EU territorial co-operation groupings receive a separate central subsidy for involvement they can finance from their own budgets.
Roughly 43 Ft per taxpayer per year — 170 million Ft for a subsidy to local authority participation that the participating authorities themselves value enough to fund.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: the cross-border co-operation structures receiving central support. The unseen: every taxpayer subsidising local-authority participation in groupings whose value to those authorities, if real, is already a reason for the authorities to fund it themselves.
Objection
"Smaller municipalities can't afford the participation costs — the central subsidy keeps them in."
Answer
If cross-border co-operation delivers value to the participating authorities, those authorities have a direct incentive to fund it. A central subsidy obscures whether the co-operation is valuable enough to those who use it to pay for it. The amount is modest; the principle is the same as any other subsidy to organised local interests funded by the general taxpayer.
Share if you think local authorities should fund the cross-border co-operation they value.
The analyst's verdict
Support for European Territorial Co-operation Groupings
Rationale
This line funds Hungarian participation in European Territorial Co-operation Groupings (EGTCs) — cross-border co-operation bodies between local and regional authorities on either side of an EU internal border. The line is a discretionary subsidy to these co-operation structures; the participating authorities, if the co-operation has value to them, can fund their own participation from their own budgets. The amount is small and the line carries no individual reliance interest. It can be closed in a single cycle.
Transition mechanism
Eliminate in the 2026 cycle; participating authorities fund their own involvement if they value it.
Affected groups
EGTC structures and the local authorities participating in them.
Free Society Institute
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