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ENRD Main Stories Archives

NRN OF THE MONTH: The Hungarian National Rural Network

The Hungarian National Rural Network was established by the Monitoring Committee of the New Hungary Rural Development Programme at the end of 2008. In its first two years of existence, the NRN mainly focused on stakeholder dialogue. In December 2010 a new ministerial decree set out a new operational framework for the Hungarian NRN, which now works according to a two-year activity plan with a detailed budget and which is approved by the Managing Authority.

The activity of the Hungarian network is based on the thousands of registered professionals and rural development organisations which are getting regularly newsletters and invitations for rural trainings and professional conferences from the network managements (the Secretariat of the HNRN operates within the framework of the National Agricultural Advisory, Educational and Rural Development Institution (www.mnvh.eu).

The Executive Committee of the NRN has approved some very important rural development activities:

  • It has supported the start-up and implementation of more than one hundred rural development project ideas, with the technical support of the European Union.

    Hunarian map

    Rural development organisations of the NRN


  • In the form of the network – it has supported the functioning of the thematic sections as recommended in the seven-year European agricultural and rural development programmes. Each section directs its own network programme of national importance. They organise trainings, conferences, field trips and best practice presentations for more than a thousand rural development stakeholders (e.g. on topics such as ‘educational gardens’, herbs production, best-planned Hungarian village and TRANSLEADER).
  • An important confidence-building activity was the signing of several strategic cooperation agreements with several large organisations (e.g. with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Hungarian Young Farmers Association, the Chamber of Hungarian Architects and the Hungarian Society for Urban Planning).
  • The dissemination of the HNRN activities and of the best rural development practices are supported by several films, and regularly published magazines and scientific publications. See for example, the bilingual publication (Hungarian/English) reviewing the NRN’s activity [PDF ].

In parallel with the enlargement of the NRN’s activity, experts in the network are increasingly taking part in ENRD events and training and bilateral cooperation agreements have been signed with the Polish, Slovakian and Romanian NRNs. In 2012, the Hungarian NRN organised two international conferences, as well.

A very important event of the network is the National Rural Day, which is held in December at the Hungarian Agricultural Museum in Budapest. On this occasion, in addition to the professional conference, awards are given to the Hungarian ‘Rural Developer of the Year’ and to the ‘Rural Developer Community of the Year’.

The Hungarian NRN, its Executive Committee and Council have detailed programmes until the end of the current programming period. And preparations are underway for the next phase (2014-2020) with the network’s professionals participating in the European Union consultation about future rural development strategies and programming.

For information:

The ENRD provides detailed analysis, per country, of overall RDP progress in terms of financial implementation and summary information about the most important measures. The RDP in Figures information can be found here.

Visit the Hungarian NRN’s website: www.mnvh.hu