Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 26th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview IX. Transition, Change and Uncertainty Author(s) Gyorgyi Nyikos Ludovika University of Public Service Budapest Hungary Kondor Zsuzsanna, Title The Hungarian Experiences with Handling Irregularities in the Use of EU Funds File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Gyorgyi Nyikos Abstract Using funds from the European Union involves a complex process and Member State authorities must comply with a wide range EU and domestic pieces of legislation. Non-compliance with such rules can lead to irregularities being found both by the competent bodies in the Member State and by the European Commission. Besides compliance with the letter of the law, it is also important to take into account the EU budgetary principles, especially the principle of sound financial management. The principal focus of the paper is the institutional system dealing with irregularities in Hungary and the relevant legal procedures, both in the past and at present. It is looked at how the institutions and procedures have evolved since the country joined the EU, how effective the system has been, how well it detected and dealt with irregularities. The range of irregularities found in Hungary since joining the EU and the dealing with them is also discussed. Furthermore the research also aims to investigate how irregularities are dealt with at EU level and the uncertainties caused by the issues detected during EU audits. The research is largely based on the relevant past and present legislation and publicly available reports and data, although the authors’ invaluable experience in the field of EU Cohesion Policy also provides a firm basis for the contents of the paper. During the analysis special attention is given to the uncertainties for the institutions implementing EU Cohesion Policy and commentary is provided by the authors on how the relevant issues might be effectively dealt with. It is expected to the found that the Hungarian institutional system has not been very effective to detect irregularities at the start, although some improvement has been made during the country’s EU membership. However there are still several legal uncertainties and confusions in the system. Stronger controls, such as in the area of public procurement have led to slightly less irregularities being found at EU level, although this result in an increase of administrative burden.
