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 have been automatically awarded this status, which was the only method between 2012–2022 allowing a city to earn county rights. All cities that earned this status before 2012 have retained it; there is no way to revoke the status by law. From 2006 until 2022, there were 23 cities with county rights, and there have been 25 since 1 May 2022. 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 instead has the special status of capital city.
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. 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 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.3. annex to the law 2011/CLXXXIX (effective: 1 May 2022) "Törvény erejénél fogva megyei jogú város 1. Baja 2. Esztergom"
List Coatsof arms City County Population(2013) Urban countysince Mayor Baja Bács-Kiskun 37 326 2022 Nyirati, Klára Békéscsaba Békés 61 046 1990 Szarvas, Péter Debrecen Hajdú-Bihar 204 333 1990 Papp, László Dunaújváros Fejér 46 813 1990 Pintér, Tamás Eger Heves 54 867 1990 Mirkóczi, Ádám Érd Pest 63 333 2006 Csőzik, László Esztergom Komárom-Esztergom 30 062 2022 Hernádi, Ádám Győr Győr-Moson-Sopron 128 567 1990 Pintér, Bence Hódmezővásárhely Csongrád-Csanád 45 700 1990 Márki-Zay, Péter Kaposvár Somogy 65 337 1990 Szita, Károly Kecskemét Bács-Kiskun 111 863 1990 Szemereyné Pataki, Klaudia Miskolc Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén 162 905 1990 Veres, Pál Nagykanizsa Zala 49 070 1990 Balogh, László Nyíregyháza Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg 118 185 1990 Kovács, Ferenc Pécs Baranya 147 719 1990 Péterffy, Attila Salgótarján Nógrád 37 199 1994 Fekete, Zsolt Sopron Győr-Moson-Sopron 60 528 1990 Farkas, Ciprián Szeged Csongrád-Csanád 161 837 1990 Botka, László Szekszárd Tolna 33 599 1994 Ács, Rezső Székesfehérvár Fejér 99 247 1990 Cser-Palkovics András Szolnok Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok 73 193 1990 Szalay, Ferenc Szombathely Vas 77 547 1990 Nemény, András Tatabánya Komárom-Esztergom 67 406 1990 Szűcsné Posztovics, Ilona Veszprém Veszprém 60 876 1990 Porga, Gyula Zalaegerszeg Zala 59 618 1990 Balaicz, Zoltán
References
External links Alliance of Cities with County Rights