System of Financial Support
System of Financial Support
The government provides financial support for the self-organization and activities of the minorities through a multi-channel system, which splits operational and program costs, and the respective support available to the minority self-governments and civil organizations.
Financial means from the central budget allocated for the national self-governments and public foundations appear in the budget of the Ministry of Justice, and support for the local minority self-governments is included in the budget of the Ministry of the Interior.
Subsidies available to minority civil organizations are disbursed at the recommendation of Parliament’s Committee for Human Rights, Minority and Religious Affairs.
Support allocated to the minority self-governments has increased. The national self-governments received HUF 306 million in 1997, HUF 398 million in 1998 and HUF 496.3 million in 1999. Local minority self-government support reached HUF 300 million in 1997 and HUF 350 million in 1998. In 1999 the 1,376 local minority self-governments received state budgetary subsidies amounting to HUF 730 million.
The issue of providing headquarters for the national self-governments is nearing completion. The eleven national self-governments established in 1995 have appropriate headquarters with the required basic operating conditions. Securing headquarters for the Ukrainian and Ruthenian self-governments (formed in 1999) in on the agenda.
The single largest amount of specified minority-targeted budgetary support goes to supporting education for the minorities. The prevailing budget provides supplementary state contributions within the framework of normative financing for the municipal governments that maintain institutions conducting minority instruction and education programs. The Budget Act for 1999 provided a total of HUF 4,941,000,000 for minority pre-school instruction, school education, and student hostels, as well as bilingual education.
In spite of supplementary support going to minority education, however, local governments maintaining small independent minority schools may experience financial problems. A solution to this problem appeared in the 1999 Act on the State Budget which decreed, on the basis of separate title, further supplementary support to municipal governments maintaining independent minority schools with less than 130 students, or independent minority pre-schools with less than 60 children.
The following public foundations are also important institutions of the budgetary minority financial support system: the Public Foundation for National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary, the Public Foundation for Romany in Hungary, and the Gandhi Public Foundation.
The Public Foundation for National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary supports programs, activities, and press bodies which protect the identity of the minorities in Hungary, and which serve to nurture, pass on, and preserve their traditions, languages, and material and spiritual culture. The Government provided HUF 474 million for this foundation in 1998 and HUF 520 million in 1999.
The Public Foundation for the Romany in Hungary received HUF 274.4 million in 1999. The organization is primarily engaged in supporting the development of small enterprises and employment and health care programs assisting families and small communities. Grants extended to the Gandhi Public Foundation which runs secondary boarding schools, primarily for talented young Romany, amounted to HUF 210 million in 1999.
With the establishment of the public foundations, the government has not only involved representatives of minorities in the decision-making process, but has created the opportunity to realize task-financing, which takes into consideration the different situations and requirements of the minority communities.
