Transport ministers of the Visegrád countries and six other EU Member States affected by the Cohesion Funds met Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas in Prague on 20 March 2012. The purpose of the consultation held on the initiatives of the current Czech presidency of the Visegrád countries was to present the mutual positions on the draft regulations related to the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) before the Transport Council’s relevant meeting.

The Prague meeting was attended by delegations from the European Commission, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia. Head of the Hungarian delegation Pál Völner, Minister of State for Infrastructure pointed out that consistent cooperation between the Visegrád countries and the Commission’s flexibility the concept of core network corridors, which had been of major concern for several Member States, has taken a favourable turn. In the wake of the compromise proposals made by the Danish presidency, previous concerns about these corridors eventually turning into an unwanted third level within the core network have been eased. The core network corridors focus exclusively on three fields: modal integration, transferability and the coordinated improvement of border crossing sections. In addition, several criticized provisions (e.g. the establishment of corridor platforms with legal personality or the opportunity provided for the Commission to take executive action) have been removed from the draft TEN-T regulation. As a result of the favourable amendments, Hungary is now ready to withdraw its reservations, previously confirmed on several occasions in connection with setting up core network corridors, during the 22 March Transport Council meeting.

Sharing other Member States’ opinion, the Minister of State gave voice to the Hungarian delegation’s disagreement with those elements of the draft regulation that prescribe the mandatory building of the core network by 2030 and set out the technical parameters of the rail core network lines. In the delegation’s opinion meeting the said deadline may only be undertaken if it is considered to be indicative rather than mandatory, and is ready to accept the proposed tight technical criteria only for newly built and renovated railway lines. The reason for disagreement is that for shortage of funds, Hungary will almost certainly be unable to meet the above expectations for the complete railway core network by the end of the next decade.

The draft TEN-T regulation sets out the European Union’s transport network development directions up to 2050, starting with the introduction of an two-level comprehensive network divided into core network elements. In the summer of 2011, the Commission announced the establishment of a new support facility, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), to replace TEN-T, and attached a list containing preliminary core network corridors, and more specifically pre-determined projects and so-called horizontal transport management topics.

Mr Völner added that Hungary invariably disagreed with earmarking EUR 10 billion of the Cohesion Fund for the purposes of the Connecting Europe Facility, and held to the distribution of the amount according to the cohesion policy rules.

(Ministry of National Development , Department of Communication)