City with county rights


A city with county rights is a level of administrative subdivision in Hungary. Since 1994 all county seats are automatically awarded this status, and since 2012 this is the only way a new city may become a city with county rights. However, all cities that achieved this rank before 2012 have retained their status and there is no law that provides for the revocation of this title. As such, cities like Hódmezővásárhely or Dunaújváros that are not county seats are still cities with county rights. Since 2006, there are 23 cities with county rights. Before 1950, the former so-called cities with municipal rights ' had a similar status as the present urban counties.
Budapest is not considered an urban county and has a special 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 ' which elects with the County Assembly a council that takes care of different tasks related to the county.

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 1990, the four previous cities and Győr were granted a new status known as "county city" . This status was also extended to three other cities in 1989: Salgótarján, Nyíregyháza and Kecskemét. After the end of Communism, this status was abolished and replaced by the urban counties as before 1971. The eight megyei város and twelve additional cities became megyei jogú város.

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