Reform Programmes in Hungary: Lisbon Matters? ! yearly around 3.2 billion euro will be available from these funds for Hun-gary; this is roughly three times the yearly average in the period 2004-2006). ! Hungary is committed to replacing its national currency by the euro as soon as the country is ready for it. To arrive at that point, Hungary has to make efforts in order to fulfil the Maastricht criteria. ! Hungary, like all the member states of the EU, is part of the Lisbon Process. The years 2005-2008 constitute the first mid-term period for introducing measures in order to realise progress in the fields of macroeconomic and microeconomic performance, as well as of employment. The above three objectives overlap considerably in time; regarding the con­tents, there are overlaps(even synergies) which can help the realisation of the objectives, but in some aspects, these objectives- at least in the short term- also contradict each other. Most contradictions concern financing, and it is the task of the elaborated mid-term programmes to coordinate the policies in a way that enables them to make ends meet. The three programmes mentioned above are the following: ! National development objectives, priorities and the use of EU funds are integrated in the National Strategic Reference Framework(NSRF). Due to its nature, this programme has a solid financial background for the period 2007-2013 1 . The NSRF contains a detailed evaluation of the situation, the description of development objectives, priorities and measures, as well as an overall plan for financing these measures. ! The way towards fulfilling the Maastricht criteria is laid down in the Con­vergence Programme(CP). Due to the fact that Hungary did not reach the targets laid down in its CP, a new version of it will be prepared by September 2006. This new version will establish target values for the next years and an official target date(actually still 2010) for the introduction of the euro. 2 ! The National(Lisbon) Reform Programme outlines the main tasks related to the EU's Lisbon Strategy in Hungary in the period 2005-2008. This pro­gramme- similarly to the NSRF- also contains an evaluation of the present situation and mid-term prospects of the economy, and proposes measures in the fields already mentioned. The big difference from the NSRF is that the role of EU financing is minimal in Lisbon-related actions. 1. The first NSRF(generally referred to in Hungary as the National Development Plan) was prepared for the period 2004-2006. 2. In Hungarian, the programme is generally referred to as the Lisbon Action Programme (Lisszaboni Akcióprogram). 119