On 18 and 19 March 2024, the Department of Public Administration and Finance Law hosted the International Conference on Financial Sustainability of Local Governments. The aim of the conference was to bring together speakers from different countries to share best practices on the organisation and development of local governments' finances from a sustainability perspective with each other and the audience.
The conference was opened by Dean Péter Smuk, thanking our guests for their participation and welcoming them to our university.
On the first day of the conference, our invited speakers presented the system of local governments in their countries, the guarantees of their financial independence, with a special focus on the issue of financial sustainability. First István Hoffman spoke about the financial control of local governments in Hungary, then Thorsten Ingo Schmidt presented the rules on financial sustainability of local governments in Germany and Dejan Vučetić in Serbia.
After the lunch break, the audience was also introduced to the financial sustainability rules in Slovakia and Slovenia through presentations by Mária Murray Svidroňová and Nejc Brezovar, respectively. In his presentation, Jarosław Kostrubiec showed how local authorities can use the instrument of bond issuance to finance their environmental investments. Urszula Zawadzka-Pąk then spoke about sustainability from a philosophical and ethical perspective.
After a coffee break, the participants listened to a presentation by Anna Vartašová and Miroslav Štrkolec on the challenges of the tax-sharing system in Slovakia. Michal Radvan and Eva Tomášková spoke about the role of property taxes in local government budgets. The day concluded with a presentation by András Bencsik on the issues of the changing financial autonomy of local governments. The evening ended with a dinner full of rich discussions in the Apátúr beer house.
On the second day of the conference, an online workshop was held, where the speakers - namely Pál Ádám, János Kálmán, Bettina Kozák, Péter Bálint Király, Anna Evelin Horváth and Gábor Hulkó - discussed the possibilities of local tax regulation in the light of sustainable development.
The present audience was given an overview of the financial situation of local governments in Hungary and neighbouring countries and the challenges they face.
