EU grants Hungary massive funding for M30 motorway expansion

The EU invests EUR 552.6 million (over HUF 182 billion) to expand the M30 motorway and connect the city of Miskolc in Hungary and the town of Tornyosnémeti, at the border with Slovakia.

ThisCohesion Fundinvestment will allow traffic to move faster, improve road safety and reduce congestion. The project will bring closer to fruition the European transport network plan known as ‘Via Carpathia', linking the Baltic with the Black and Aegean seas.

, the Commission said in a statement.

Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, said: “This road connection was long awaited and will directly benefit the one million inhabitants of the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén area, with faster, safer and more comfortable travel conditions. Ultimately, Hungary and Slovakia will benefit from the positive spillovers of better connectivity in terms of jobs, growth, tourism and trade.” 

EU-funded works include the construction of a 60-km motorway stretch and of 48 bridges. The construction will involve local companies and should be completed in February 2022

, added the Commission.

In mid-July this year, the European Commission approved the Cohesion Fund investing more than EUR 173 million to build the Budimír-Bidovce section of Slovakia's D1 motorway and a section of the R2-R4 expressway between the towns of Košické Oľšany and Hrašovík. This EU-funded project will improve the road network around the city of Košice (South-East Slovakia). The project should be completed in December 2019. The EU invests almost EUR 3.5 billion in transport and energy networks in Slovakia under the 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy.

The decision on the Hungarian road development should be seen in light of his complex road development series (Trans-European Transport Network). A first four-lane expressway between Tornyosnémeti and the Slovak border has already been completed in an investment worth HUF 4.4 billion (with 85% EU funding). This was opened for traffic at the end of 2017, and it is connected to the R4 expressway in Slovakia (pictured).

The other stretch between Miskolc and Tornyosnémeti will be a motorway and it is currently under construction. The 56-kilometer stretch has a budget of HUF 183 bn, this is what has been green-lighted today.

Cover photo by  MTI / János Vajda 

This article is part of the work programme titled "The impacts of EU cohesion policy in Hungary - Present and Future" which is carried out by Net Média Zrt., the publisher of Portfolio.hu, between 1st April 2019 and 31st March 2020 with European Union financing. The views in this article solely reflect the opinions of the author. The European Commission as the funding entity does not take any responsibility for the use of information presented in this article.