The Chairman of the Transcarpathian regional council Volodymyr Chubirko met with Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Zsolt Csutora, the director of the border economy and infrastructure development department of Hungary Peter Kiss-Parciu and the Ministerial Commissioner on the EU Strategy for the Danube Region István Joo. They discussed issues of cooperation in the field of railway transport, road management. The meeting was also attended by the first deputy chairman of the Regional Council Mykhailo Popovich, the deputy chief of Uzhgorod directorate of rail transportation Vitaly Isak, the chief engineer of the Road Service in Transcarpathian region Vasyl Stadnyk.
First of all, the Regional Council Chairman Volodymyr Chubirko expressed his condolences to the Hungarian people on the death of the President of Hungary Arpad Goncz, who "was a great friend of Ukraine". Also the Chairman of the Regional Council thanked the Hungarian partners for taking Transcarpathian ATO participants for treatment in Budapest.
The meeting was focused on the issue of building new crossing points on the Hungarian-Ukrainian border, which is 137 kilometers long and where Transcarpathia borders to Szabolcs-Satmar-Bereg region of Hungary.
Experts of the coordination center for transport communication development of Hungary have done a great work: the overall feasibility studies, selection of transport links for further design based on the list of priorities in the project plan. The influence of a new transportation network on the current traffic in the region was analyzed. Hungary has developed a national strategy for the development of transport communication. One of the priorities is the checkpoint Velyka Palad-Nagyhódos. Here, from the Hungarian side, the road between the settlement of Nagyhódos and the state border with a paved width of 5.50 m and overall width of 7.50 m has already built, and the reconstructed of the bridge has been completed. On the Ukrainian side, more than ten kilometers of the road has to be built, it takes a lot of money which we do not have. Volodymyr Chubirko assured the foreign partners that Transcarpathia would continue to lobby this issue with the central authorities in order to have the financing of this project provided for in the budget for 2016.
Another joint project, which the parties discussed, was the building of the bypass road in Beregovo to relieve the traffic to the checkpoint "Luzhanka-Beregsurany." The Hungarians proposed to raise funds of the Hungarian state bank under Ukraine government guarantees for the construction of the road. However, they have not received positive answer. Volodymyr Chubirko suggested as an option to attract loans of the European Investment Bank.
Another aspect of the cooperation is attracting EU funds to localize the problems associated with the Solotvyno salt mine. The parties suggest the step-by-step approach to the problem, because this is a problem for the whole Danube Region. Thanks to appeals of Transcarpathian authorities and Hungarian partners, officials in Brussels are aware of the situation and it is hoped that it will be studied there.
Finally, Volodymyr Chubirko said that in a week at the session of the Regional Council they would considere the establishment of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation "Tisa" with Hungarian partners. This grouping will be attracting EU grants for the development of infrastructure projects in Transcarpathia and the neighboring Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg region.
After that, the participants laid flowers at the monument to the Hungarian poet and revolutionary Sandor Petofi.
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