City with county rights

A city with county rights (or urban county, Hungarian: megyei jogú város, MJV) is a level of administrative subdivision in Hungary. Since 1994 all county seats are automatically awarded this status, and between 2012–2022 this was the only way a city could earn county rights. All cities earned this status before 2012 have retained their status and there is no way to revoke the title by the law. From 2006 until 2022, there were 23 cities with county rights,[1] and 25 since 1 May 2022.[2] Before 1950, cities with former "municipal rights" (törvényhatósági jogú város) had a similar status as the present urban counties.

Budapest is not considered an urban county and has a special capital city status among the other Hungarian cities.

Every city with county rights is allowed to be subdivided into districts. The representative body is the General Assembly (közgyűlés) which elects with the County Assembly a council that takes care of different tasks related to the county.[3] Cities with county rights performs the tasks and powers of the county as its own authority but must provide some public services to the whole or a large area of the county (eg. education, health services, cultural services). Assemblies of the county and the urban county cooperate via a coordination committee to prepare and coordinate common tasks.

History

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Between 1954 and 1971, the four largest regional cities received the megyei jogú város title. These were Debrecen, Miskolc, Pécs and Szeged. Then, from 1971 to 1989, the four previous cities and Győr were granted a new status known as "county city" (megyei város). This status was also extended to three other cities in 1989: Kecskemét, Nyíregyháza and Székesfehérvár (county seats and over 100,000 residents). After the end of Communism, this status was abolished and replaced by the urban counties. In 1990 the earlier eight megyei város and twelve additional cities became megyei jogú város which reached 50 thousand residents as limited by law. In 1994 all county seat earned the title by law modification (Salgótarján and Szekszárd became urban counties). In 2006 Érd also earned the title after demanded since residents exceeded 50 thousand by the 2000s. Though some of the cities which are not county seats meanwhile decreased under the limit, they still retained their status (Dunaújváros, Hódmezővásárhely, Nagykanizsa). Since 2012 it is declared by law that earlier earned status could not be lost, as well that cities need to become county seats before earning urban city title. In 2022 the law was amended that National Assembly can grant the status to any city annexed to the law as a list, and the same time named Baja and Esztergom in the annex.[4]

List

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Coats
of arms
City County Population
(2013)
Urban county
since
Mayor
Baja Bács-Kiskun 37 326 2022 Nyirati, Klára
Békéscsaba Békés 61 046 Decrease 1990 Szarvas, Péter
Debrecen Hajdú-Bihar 204 333 Decrease 1990 Papp, László
Dunaújváros Fejér 46 813 Decrease 1990 Pintér, Tamás
Eger Heves 54 867 Decrease 1990 Mirkóczi, Ádám
Érd Pest 63 333 Increase 2006 Csőzik, László
Esztergom Komárom-Esztergom 30 062 2022 Hernádi, Ádám
Győr Győr-Moson-Sopron 128 567 Increase 1990 Dézsi, Csaba András
Hódmezővásárhely Csongrád-Csanád 45 700 Decrease 1990 Márki-Zay, Péter
Kaposvár Somogy 65 337 Decrease 1990 Szita, Károly
Kecskemét Bács-Kiskun 111 863 Increase 1990 Szemereyné Pataki, Klaudia
Miskolc Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén 162 905 Decrease 1990 Veres, Pál
Nagykanizsa Zala 49 070 Decrease 1990 Balogh, László
Nyíregyháza Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg 118 185 Decrease 1990 Kovács, Ferenc
Pécs Baranya 147 719 Decrease 1990 Péterffy, Attila
Salgótarján Nógrád 37 199 Decrease 1994 Fekete, Zsolt
Sopron Győr-Moson-Sopron 60 528 Increase 1990 Farkas, Ciprián
Szeged Csongrád-Csanád 161 837 Decrease 1990 Botka, László
Szekszárd Tolna 33 599 Decrease 1994 Ács, Rezső
Székesfehérvár Fejér 99 247 Decrease 1990 Cser-Palkovics András
Szolnok Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok 73 193 Decrease 1990 Szalay, Ferenc
Szombathely Vas 77 547 Decrease 1990 Nemény, András
Tatabánya Komárom-Esztergom 67 406 Decrease 1990 Szűcsné Posztovics, Ilona
Veszprém Veszprém 60 876 Decrease 1990 Porga, Gyula
Zalaegerszeg Zala 59 618 Decrease 1990 Balaicz, Zoltán

References

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  1. ^ "Cities with county rights (in Hungarian language)" (PDF). ksh.hu. Central Bureau of Statistics (Hungary). Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  2. ^ "Orbán Viktor: Esztergom minden magyarnak az otthona, a mi szellemi központunk" (in Hungarian). Telex.hu. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  3. ^ "2011/CLXXXIX. Legislation about the Local Councils in Hungary (in Hungarian language)". njt.hu. National law database. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  4. ^ 3. annex to the law 2011/CLXXXIX (effective: 1 May 2022) "Törvény erejénél fogva megyei jogú város 1. Baja 2. Esztergom"
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