The Consul General of Hungary and the head of the Transcarpathian Customs discussed the problems at the border

On Tuesday, a bilateral meeting was held at the Transcarpathian Customs of the State Customs Service, during which the Chief Customs Officer of the region Ivan Berezhnyuk and the Consul General of Hungary in Uzhgorod Jozsef Buhajla discussed topical issues of cooperation between departmental institutions, customs reforms, reconstruction of the border infrastructure, and long lines on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border caused by restrictive quarantine measures related to the covid epidemic.

The parties noted that there is a rather large section of the border between Hungary and Ukraine, so urgent issues need to be addressed jointly.

The head of the diplomatic mission noted that Hungary has toughened anti-epidemic measures until November 1, but trade remains free. He also stressed that currently Hungary is the only country in the EU that allows transit for Ukrainian citizens.

For his part, the head of the customs noted that all the problems of border infrastructure were reported in detail by the head of the regional state administration Oleksiy Petrov personally to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and the Foreign Minister during their recent working trip to Transcarpathia.

– We understand that Ukraine’s movement to the European Union with the current infrastructure is slowing down, – Ivan Berezhnyuk said. – So I am very grateful for the attention to these problems and the help from Hungary .

Then both leaders moved on to the topic of long queues on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border. The Consul General made it clear about the EU rule: tourist travel during the pandemic is prohibited. Citizens of Ukraine with biometric passports cannot enter Hungary for tourist purposes.

He also noted that police officers from Poland, Germany and Austria are currently working at Hungarian border crossing points, and they can detect forged documents presented by Ukrainian citizens very quickly. There have been cases when a whole bus had to go back due to forged documents, and forged certificates of COVID tests have often been detected.

During the constructive dialogue, Ivan Berezhnyuk addressed the distinguished guest with a request to help Ukrainian customs officers by sharing the experience of Hungarian colleagues on changes in customs legislation upon accession to the EU.

Jozsef Buhajla gladly agreed to help in this matter, promising to organize a meeting of Hungarian customs officers with Ukrainian colleagues after the lifting of restrictive anti-epidemic measures to exchange experiences through joint presentations, – the press service of the Transcarpathian Customs of the State Customs Service reported.