Our program initiated in 2003 has formally been finished last year. We achieved considerable results under these four years, but there are still many challanges to overcome. The laws and decrees directing civic organizations' operation are still quite unfriendly and not fostering the sustainability and development of the civil sector. As far as possible we continued working in this field throughout the year. In cooperation with several other organizations, we have been tracking the creation and passing of new laws and the approval of amendments.
The most important event of the year was the approval of the 1065/2007 government decision about some provisions serving the development of governmental civil contacts which defines development trends for the next three year. From autumn of 2006 onwards we were actively participating in the making of this regulation. Although the final version refers to narrower fields comparing to the original ideas after all it is reflecting our proposals to a large extent. For example, we had proposed earlier the domestic ratification of the No 124. European Convention on the recognition of the legal personality of International Non-Governmental Organisations.
The main goal of the governmental regulation is to set up a "civil portal" in 2008. Connecting to this we made comprehensive recommendations to simplify the administration of small organizations. The function of this website will be to realize a unified official civil register with the opportunity of one-window registration and e-administration to replace the present system where new organizations have to sign up separately at the county court, tax authority and other offices. The website would solve several older problems of the sector, but many regulations have to be amended before the system would be set up. The present registration of NGOs have to be changed at first including the filtration of “sleeping” (non-operating) organizations. Actually we don’t even know now how many civic organizations are really operating in Hungary!
Beside the approval of the governmental regulation, two other important acts were amended; the National Civil Fund Act and the 1% Act (it allows taxpayers to transfer 1% of their previous year’s paid personal income tax to public benefit NGOs). We constructively participated and put forward proposals in both processes.
Several corrections were made in the National Civil Fund Act based on the practical experience of previous years. Significant changes were made in the 1% law, too, e.g.: taxpayers can fill in the 1% data sheet as part of their regular tax return sheet instead of sending it in a closed envelope separately. Hopefully this simplified method will raise the quantity of dedications, and those who wouldn’t have niggled with an extra paper will fill in the tax number of an NGO now. As the tax authority will publicize the dedications in autumn we will see the results of these changes later.
During the preparation and negotiation processes we were in contact mainly with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour. The government’s focal point of civil society relations, the Department of NGO Relations assigned us to organize a training series for municipal civil contacts based on our manual called Local interest, local value.
Besides these, we also tried to foster the cooperation of other civic working groups and networks. On the occasion of the regular MOP Aarhus Convention Conference 2008 we initiated to compile a parallel, alternative civic report about the domestic situation of public participation in environmental decision making. Additionally we were working in the CNNY (Civic Organizations for the Transparency of the Hungarian National Development Plan) working group and assisted in preparing its regular reports.
Enhancing NGO-government cooperation was important in the beginning and at the end of the year as well: in March we awarded the Real Civil Partnership Prize second time which is given each year to municipalities and administrative bodies for their model-value cooperation with NGOs. This year the local government of the 18th district received the symbolic prize based on the nomination of the National Association of Large Families Szent Lőrinc and the municipality of Szentgotthárd received a special award. Based on the positive feedback the prize was announced in early 2008 again.
Forum at CEU
Green Presidents
Charitable auction
Greenway at Kapolcs