Tibor Navracsics, the minister of public administration and regional development, praised Finland’s regional development on Thursday after discussing the EU’s competitiveness and the future of its cohesion policy during a three-day visit to the northern European country. Speaking to MTI, Navracsics said northern Finland’s Oulu will be the European Capital of Culture in 2026, adding that with Veszprém and the Lake Balaton region having held the title last year, his visit to Finland had also included consultations on the programme with Oulu’s leadership. He said that during his visit to Oulu and the southern town of Riihimaki, he had the chance to inspect how Finland’s regional development policy based on “regional unity” works. Navracsics said Hungary could learn from Finland’s example, given that the regions along the Arctic Circle and beyond faced similar problems to Hungary’s developing regions such as an aging population and emigration. He said he and his Finnish partners had discussed devising joint strategies for assisting their regions facing depopulation.
Meanwhile, the minister said he had also discussed priorities of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union such as the need to restore the EU’s competitiveness and debates around the bloc’s cohesion policy.
Navracsics said that in Helsinki, he had discussed the future of the EU’s cohesion policy and the development of bilateral political and economic ties with Finland’s Economic Affairs Minister Wille Rydman. He said he had also met Peter Ostman, the parliamentary group leader of Finland’s Christian Democrats, to talk about relations between the party and Hungary’s co-ruling Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP).