The donor countries are very concerned about the negative effect that the lack of a National Focal Point has had on the implementation of programmes in Hungary. Issues related to the implementation structure and civil society will have to be solved.
In order to reach a mutually acceptable solution, the three donors had a constructive meeting with Hungarian authorities in Brussels to discuss the way forward, with a view to finding solutions to the outstanding implementation issues in due course.
Hungary is a relatively large recipient of EEA and Norway Grants. For the current period, €153.3 million has been allocated, of which €11.76 million has already been disbursed.
Further payments to Hungary under the EEA and Norway Grants were suspended on 9 May 2014. The reason is that Hungary is in breach of the agreements entered into by moving the implementation and monitoring of the Grants scheme out of the central government administration.