The heads of the competent ministries of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia signed a declaration on developing transport connections between the Visegrád countries in Budapest, on 27 November, 2013.

According to the contents of the document, the parties are to cooperate next year in surveying the current state of transport connections between the four countries. This is to be followed by identifying infrastructure developments suitable for eliminating bottlenecks during the EU’s financial framework for 2014-2020 already. They are also to take the necessary planning preparatory measures for the further improvement and extension of transport connections. Signatories encourage their respective national scientific and research institutes to take part in the joint work.

It was at their Budapest meeting held in October this year that the prime ministers of Visegrád Countries had agreed to start planning tasks targeted at the improvement of transport connections. In V4 countries, East-West transport links are more developed than North-South network elements. As regards road transport, it is primarily motorways that are missing, while the railway network, most of it constructed still before World War I, does not come up to the expected quality standard.

According to an analysis of the Institute of Transport Sciences, the bottlenecks in the transport in the Budapest agglomeration are drawbacks on the quality of international transport, Minister of State for Infrastructure Pál Völner revealed. Fast growing transit transport justifies infrastructure investments, which are significant stimuli for the economy. The Minister of State suggested preparing a joint study  based on further data collection, to serve as the basis for a comprehensive development programme.

Beyond surveying potential joint projects targeting the improvement of transport connections, participants mutually informed one another on their respective Sectoral Operational Programmes for the period of 2014-2020.

(Ministry of National Development, Communications Department)