Rába-Danube-Váh EGTC

On 17 September 2021, the RDV EGTC organised the conference “Food Industry”, a regional action plan for employment. The event took place in the renovated Mosonmagyaróvár Castle. The conference was opened by István Nagy, Minister of Agriculture, Zoltán Németh, President of the Rába-Danube-Váh European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation and of the municipality of Győr-Moson-Sopron County, and János Iváncsics, Deputy Mayor of Mosonmagyaróvár.

István Nagy, Minister of Agriculture, said that the aim of the event was no less than to promote sustainable and quality employment and to create new jobs within the food sector in the Hungarian-Slovak border regions. In his speech, Zoltán Németh, President of the Rába-Duna-Vág European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation and the president of the general assembly of Győr-Moson-Sopron County, stressed that “we created the Rába-Danube-Váh European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation to create an organisation representing the people, civil organisations, institutions and businesses in the Slovak-Hungarian border area near the Danube”. János Iváncsics, deputy mayor of Mosonmagyaróvár said that the implementation of EU projects had seen many changes over the past 25 years, both in terms of organisation and quality.

Emma Vasi, Director of the RDV EGTC, emphasised the role of the Rába-DanubeVáh European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation in the development of the border region and presented the results achieved through the cooperation. She pointed out the importance of innovative processes, which will be reflected in the calls for proposals for the 2021-2027 funding period. 

In his presentation, Pál Szakál, professor of the Department of Water and Environmental Sciences at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences of the Széchenyi István University in Mosonmagyaróvár, focused on the production of healthier, more nutritious food and the transition to a circular economy. Martin Polovka, director of the Food Research Institute of the Slovak National Agricultural and Food Centre, outlined the potential of using closed green technologies, especially in crop processing.

Krisztina Hollósi, representative of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, gave an online presentation on the funding opportunities provided by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme. Csilla Kiss, county director of the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture, talked about the different funding opportunities for the Hungarian food industry and agricultural development. Károly Bödők, regional representative of the Central European Economic Development Network, introduced the types of support available to Hungarian enterprises to access foreign markets. Food Industry partners Géza Vörös (Vörös Tészta Manufaktúra), Szabolcs Emmer (Kősziklás Winery) and Stanislav Baxa (Mäsovinky s.r.o., AEH s.r.o., KKV- Union s.r.o.) spoke about the transition to a sustainable, circular economy and the production of healthy, regional products.

The source of the article: Rába-Danube-Váh EGTC