Tibor Navracsics, the minister for public administration and rural development, said Hungary isn't wasting its European Union funding, but investing it in its future competitiveness.
Addressing the 18th Annual International Conference of Competitiveness Operational Programs, Navracsics said those investments would also contribute to making the EU more competitive.
In terms of absorption of EU funding, Hungary was "at the forefront" for the 2014-2020 funding period, and it still is in the current period "in spite of much more difficult circumstances", he added.
Navracsics said it was "very distressing" that Hungary still had to face suspensions of funding from three operative programmes from time to time.
He added that those suspensions not only deprived Hungarian businesses of resources and the Hungarian economy of investments but also denied the opportunity to strengthen competitiveness.