Over the past months, the Hungarian Presidency has organised five expert-level meetings in order to complete its professional programme. The work programme was primarily determined by the Spanish-Belgian-Hungarian trio presidency’s medium-term eighteen-month priorities; while chairing the presidency of the Council of the EU, however, Hungary influenced development and expansion of the six-month ‘curriculum’. As part of the Hungarian Presidency, and with the aid of Hungarian and foreign experts, the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice completed a thorough specialist programme, which is closely linked to the preparation of the recently-announced Zoltán Magyary Programme for the development of public administration. As part of this there was an examination of indices describing the effectiveness of the government’s work, the practical application of customer satisfaction surveys, and the elements of the career model for civil servants compared to European good practice, in order to portray public service as an attractive career path.
In accordance with tradition, to close the meeting Hungary handed over the silver bell symbolising the cooperation of European public administration to the Polish Presidency. In her speech, Krisztina Farkas stressed that this was a historic moment for Europe, as the work and successes of the Hungarian Presidency will continue in the spirit of one thousand years of Polish-Hungarian friendship.
