The Hungarian Parliament voted in favour of the law on the public construction and investment regime with 136 votes in favour, 49 against and 9 abstentions. The law, among other things, makes the use of BIM mandatory for projects at or above the EU public procurement threshold, requires greater control over design and construction than before, and puts the whole life cycle of public works on a new footing.
The official purposes of the new act are as follows:
- To put the system of public construction investments on a new basis and unify it.
- To increase the efficiency of public construction works, with energy efficiency as a priority.
- To provide adequate legal, professional and budgetary guarantees for investment operators in order to ensure predictability.
- To strengthen and unify the public organisation involved in the implementation of public works.
- To create a domestic construction environment in line with European law and values, and support domestic operators vis-à-vis foreign investors.
- To improve the competitiveness of Hungarian construction enterprises and ensure that in the future investment decisions cannot be taken without the input of local communities.
- To ensure that public construction investments are professionally driven.
- To ensure that publicly funded investments are carried out in a coherent and coordinated way, with a predictable cost level.
- To eliminate overlaps within the formerly fragmented organisation and ensure that certain investment-related tasks are carried out within the competent public institutions rather than by external resources.
- To establish uniform technical requirements and contractual conditions.
- To establish and update a knowledge base of contracting authorities to increase efficiency.
- To establish a Public Investment Stakeholder Council.
