One Billion Euro Hungarian-Ukrainian Border Development Plan Announced

Hungary and Ukraine will submit a joint border and road development plan worth one billion euros to Brussels, the Parliamentary State Secretary of Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced at a press conference with Ukrainian government officials on Monday.

Levente Magyar said that the joint Hungarian-Ukrainian plan will include the construction of two motorway links and a new freight crossing point between the two countries, as well as related road improvements on both sides of the border. The State Secretary also announced that from Monday, empty trucks will start crossing the border at Beregsurány – Astei from Ukraine to Hungary, thus relieving the busy Záhony border crossing.

In addition, a complete renovation and capacity expansion of the Ukrainian side border post in Astei will start, which is expected to take two years.

Serhiy Derkach, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development; Levente Magyar, Hungarian Parliamentary State Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Viktor Mykyta, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine; and Miroslav Bilecky, Head of Provincial Administration (L-R). Photo: MTI/KKM

“We will also soon open the border crossing point between Nagyhódos and Velyka Palad,’ which will be the sixth crossing point on the Hungarian-Ukrainian border section,” added Magyar.

He recalled that Hungary and Ukraine signed the first memorandum on the development of the border section in 2013. He explained that due to the crises, the subsequent Ukrainian governments were unable to deal with the issue of border crossings, and due to the war that broke out in 2022, these issues were completely taken off the agenda.

In the last year, we have managed to speed up the work, because Ukraine has realized that without border crossing developments, the country’s EU and European economic integration will become impossible.”

If these projects are completed by the end of the decade, “we will have done our utmost to ensure that passenger and freight traffic between Ukraine and Hungary and the European Union is unimpeded and at full capacity,” the State Secretary said.

At the press conference, Viktor Mykyta, Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration, pointed out that both countries were on transit routes and that the huge volume of goods crossing the border would require improvements. “Today we have taken a small but important step: the opening of the Astei crossing will ensure the flow of empty trucks to Hungary, and the first two trucks crossed from Ukraine to Hungary today,” he noted.

In response to a question from journalists, Serhiy Derkach, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development, stressed that the investment will be carried out with funds from the state budget, other partners, and with the support of a EUR 9.6 million program from the EU.

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