István Pálfi Anniversary Day was held by the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice

István Pálfi Award ceremony was organized for the second time. The award aims to appreciate the work of professionals in the field of territorial coopeartion. This time the prize was awarded to Mr. Michel Delebarre, Mayor of Dunkerque, President of the COTER.

The ceremony was attended by the president of the republic, high level state officers, experts both from Hungary and abroad. Mr. Bence Rétvári parlamentary state secretary was responsible for giving the award. Speeches were held by Tamás Deutsh EP respresentative, Gyula Ocskay secretary general of CESCI, Balázs Simó head of International Cooperation Programmes Managing Authority (National Development Agency), Roman Lavtar director of the Office Responsible for Local Governments and Regional Policy (Slovenia), Thomas Zandstra from the Ministry of the Interior of the Netherlands and Gábor Baranyai deputy state secretary responsible for sectoral policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the recent years Michel Delebarre has been the rapporteur of several issues, such as the principle of subsidiarity, the fifth cohesion report and now the revision of EGTC- Regulation. In his speech he appreciated the French and Hungarian results obtained in the field of territorial policy.