This year’s first EGTC workshop was held in the city of Tata, and participants were delighted to have an in-person meeting after such a long time. The 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Pons Danubii EGTC was a festive occasion, and in the morning of 24 June 2021, nearly 100 participants gathered in the great hall of the Piarist monastery in Tata.

The event was opened by dr. Péter Sztáray, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In his speech he applauded the role of the Pons Danubii EGTC in the region, and his encouragement gave new momentum to the partners and the development processes. This was followed by speeches by MPs dr. Judit Czunyiné Bertalan and János Bencsik: they expressed their appreciation and provided an overview of how local conditions and trends are connected to the objectives of the Pons Danubii EGTC in a historical, social and economic development context. József Michl, the mayor of Tata, Béla Keszegh, the mayor of Komárno, and Zoltán Bara, the director of the Pons Danubii EGTC, welcomed the guests and described the 10 years of cooperation between the two cities and the EGTC and the key achievements of the past decade.

The second part of the programme was a professional workshop with topical issues of the 2021-2027 development period, planning and focused preparation on the agenda. The EGTC monitor, the information platform of Hungarian EGTCs, was introduced. Summary presentations described potential funding and direct EU-funding for the period after 2021. The last part of the programme was a roundtable talk, where the representatives of the EGTCs summarised the current and significant projects and problems of their respective territories, along with topics that, when discussed together, can make the operational and project development activities of EGTCs more effective and successful.

The workshop received support from KÖFOP (Public Administration and Public Service Development Operational Programme) project No. 3.3.3-15-2016-00002.