Hungary and Ukraine are submitting a border development plan worth one billion euros to the European Union.
Hungary and Ukraine will submit a joint border and road development plan package worth one billion euros to Brussels, announced the parliamentary state secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade at a press conference held with Ukrainian government officials on Monday at the border station in Asztély.
Levente Magyar said that the joint Hungarian-Ukrainian plan will include the construction of two highway connections and the establishment of a new freight crossing between the two countries, as well as related road improvements on both sides of the border.
The state secretary also announced that the traffic of empty trucks at the Beregsurány-Astély border crossing from Ukraine to Hungary has started from Monday, thus relieving the busy Záhony crossing, and the full renovation and capacity expansion of the Astély border station on the Ukrainian side will begin, which is expected to last two years.
In addition, the border crossing between Nagyhódos and Nagypalád in Ukraine will soon be opened, which will be the sixth crossing of the Hungarian-Ukrainian border section, said Levente Magyar.
The politician reminded that Hungary and Ukraine signed the first memorandum on the development of the border section in 2013, but due to the crises, subsequent Ukrainian governments were unable to deal with the issue of border crossers, and due to the war that broke out in 2022, these issues were completely removed from the agenda. questions.
In the last one year, however, it was possible to speed up the work, because Ukraine realized that without border crossing improvements, the country's European Union and European economic integration would become impossible, emphasized Levente Magyar.
He explained that there are still differences of opinion between the Hungarian and Ukrainian governments on various issues, but it is not necessary to expand the border capacities, because without it trade traffic cannot increase and Ukraine cannot move closer to Europe.
Levente Magyar said that the first step in the development series is to allow non-cargo trucks to pass through the border station in Astély, which will be followed by upgrading and expanding the capacity of the crossing on the Ukrainian side. On the Hungarian side, at Beregsurány, the freight traffic crossing was already built in a previous project, but on the Ukrainian side, this work is just starting, which is expected to be completed in 2026, he added.
This will soon be followed by the handover of the new Nagyhódos crossing, and later the submission of the planning package, which, in addition to the construction of two new highway connections, includes the construction of a new Tisza bridge between Záhony and Csap, and I want to make the bridge between Lónya and the Ukrainian Harangláb, currently only a border station that can be used for passenger traffic - he explained.
If we can achieve this by the end of this decade, then we have done everything we can to ensure that passenger and cargo traffic between Ukraine and Hungary and the European Union is uninterrupted and at full capacity, said the state secretary.
Regarding the railway, Levente Magyar noted that the direct Budapest-Kiev train service will start soon, which will facilitate travel between the Hungarian and Ukrainian capitals.
At the briefing, Viktor Mikita, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said that both countries are located on transit routes, and due to the huge traffic of goods passing through, the border crossings must be developed.
Today we took a small, but all the more important step, because by opening the Astély crossing, we ensure the traffic of empty trucks to Hungary, the first two trucks crossed from Ukraine to Hungary today, he said.
Ukrainian Deputy Minister Szerhij Derkács spoke about the fact that the route leading to the border was built for empty trucks, and before crossing, vehicles must be registered in an electronic queue.
It was also mentioned that the complete renovation of the Asztély crossing point will begin with European Union funding and state resources, during which a full-fledged border crossing point with a throughput three times greater than the current one will be created in two phases, by the end of 2026.
In response to a journalist's question, the deputy minister said that the investment will be realized with the support of the state budget, other partners and the EU program worth 9.6 million euros.
The first part of the money has already arrived at the state renovation agency, Szerhij Derkács added.
Miroszláv Bileckij, the head of the Subcarpathian county administration, explained at the briefing that Ukraine's logistics routes have been transformed due to the war, and this means new tasks, i.e. the opening of new border crossings.
The Asztély development and the planned belfry crossing development will be able to replace the huge passenger and truck traffic experienced at Záhony, giving freight traffic the opportunity to use a new crossing, said the head of the county administration.
MTI
Cover photo: KKM parliamentary state secretary Levente Magyar (j) speaks, flanked by Szerhij Derkács, deputy minister responsible for Ukrainian infrastructure (b) at the press conference held at the Luzsánka-Beregsurány border station in Transcarpathia, Astély
Source: MTI/KKM
