Ádám Bodor, Director of EuroVelo, Cycling Tourism & Regional Policy at ECF, together with representatives of Hungarian cycling NGOs in Budapest last week.

Over the summer months the ECF has been working with its member groups to develop cycling strategies that can be used to influence national priorities for EU-funding during the next financial period (2014-2020).

We are pleased to highlight a recent event held in Budapest to encourage the inclusion of cycling measures in the Hungarian plans for this period. Organised by Hungary’s cycling community, the event offered opportunities to present key messages to decision makers within the relevant ministries and thereby hopefully influence the contents ofthe country’s strategies and budgets.

The Hungarian Cycling Club, an ECF member, took the opportunity to remind ministers that the biggest benefit of increasing levels of cycling comes from the improvements to health, as demonstrated by WHO’s HEAT tool. However, they indicated that to make the most of these benefits cycling-friendly roads and cycle paths, training sessions and promotion campaigns are needed.

The Cycling Hungary Alliance, another ECF member, focused on using the potential of cycling tourism in Hungary, which is already estimated as contributing 1.9 billion Euros to the Hungarian economy every year by a study commissioned by the European Parliament. However to tap into this potential the Alliance stressed that there was a need for European, national and local cycle routes, with sophisticated promotion and marketing strategies and cycling-friendly services to attract users from home and abroad.

The Hungarian Cycling Industry and Retail Federation was also part of the event, underlining that the cycling industry generates considerable income and provides employment to thousands across the country.  The Federation were keen to highlight that it was the most sustainable vehicle industry and therefore should receive support at a national and European level.

The HUF 150-billion bill is handed to a representative of the Ministry for National Economy.

The event was organised to coincide with the public consultation period on Hungary’s Operational Programmes for the 2014-2020 EU financial period. These documents have to set out the priorities for how EU money should be spent in Hungary over the next seven years and must be agreed by the EU. Hungary’s cycling community handed over their proposals to improve the first versions of the Operational Programmes and asked the government to integrate their proposed modifications to the text. They also presented a symbolic 150billion HUF banknote to the representatives of the Ministry of National Economy to represent the estimated economic benefits of cycling during 2014-2020 period.

The event was very simple but well thought out. It provided a clever reminder of the key benefits of cycling – economic, employment, environmental, health, regional development etc. –to the key decision makers at a crucial time.

In the coming weeks, public consultations on Operational Programmes will be held in countries across Europe, providing the opportunity for citizens and organisations to present their views on what EU money should be spent on at a national and regional level.

We encourage you to find out which consultations will be taking place in your county and to prepare your advocacy messages accordingly. The ECF is ready to support this work and will be arranging a webinar (the latest in an ongoing series) shortly. Please view the dedicated €6 billion campaign webpages for more information: http://ecf.com/advocary/eu-funding-2/

Final decisions on strategies and budgets are being made now. There are large budgets on the table that can make a huge improvement to cycling in the coming seven years and we hope to attract as large a portion as possible!