On 25 April 2013, in Wieliczka, Poland, representatives of the competent ministries of the Visegrad and Cohesion countries (V4+7) discussed experience relating to transport infrastructure development implemented with EU co-financing. On 24 April 2013, in Kraków, Poland, the Minister of State for Infrastructure, Pál Völner, introduced the planned transport programme under Hungarian V4 presidency to the heads of the Czech, Polish and Slovak partner ministries.

At the V4+7 ministerial meeting, Pál Völner noted that Hungary has contracted over 90 per cent of the approximately HUF 1 800 billion budget of the New Széchenyi Plan Transport Operational Programme. The amount of HUF 836 billion has already been paid to winning tenderers. As a major problem in the implementation of the transport development projects, the preparation of the projects may suffer significant delays due to the mandatory impact assessments and authorisations. As an additional problem, the technological and environmental requirements, based on the expectations of western Member States, are often difficult to fulfil due to the lower levels of development measured in the Cohesion countries. In the Central and Eastern European region, for example, the replacement of outdated public transportation vehicles would be more important and cost-effective. The available aids could be much more successfully utilised if countries in the region could implement significantly more projects at a substantially lower cost under more lenient technical specifications.

Most of the key areas of development will remain unchanged in the next programming period: implementation of the national elements of the international TEN-T network, improvement of accessibility by public roads in the region and of traffic safety, development of regional and suburban railways. Hungary plans to allocate 60 per cent of funds in the transport operational programme and nearly 90 per cent of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funds to railway development between 2014 and 2020. EU funds will continue to finance most of the investment costs, as the financial burden related to motorway sections built under PPP schemes absorbs a significant amount of limited national resources.

Prior to the V4+7 meeting, representatives of the transport ministries in the Visegrad countries discussed current affairs. At the meeting, Pál Völner noted that Hungary plans to continue the implementation of the launched transport programmes and objectives during its V4 presidency commencing in July 2013. In relation to rail, coordination of the implementation schedule of the TEN-T network, analysis of the possible connection of cross-border, regional secondary lines, which are independently unfeasible, and the joint drawing up of the framework of cross-border treaties may be raised as new issues for debate.

The most important topics of the near future are the renewal of national transport strategies, infrastructure development projects in the upcoming financial period and their financing possibilities. Under its presidency, Hungary plans to hold a high-level V4 conference with regard to these issues in the autumn of 2013 in Budapest.

Budapest, 26 April 2013

(Ministry of National Development, Communications Department)