“The barrier-free nature of the international carriage of goods must be maintained, and commuters must continue to be provided with the opportunity to cross borders in the interests of work or the cultivation of farmland”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a video posted to his Facebook page following a videoconference with his Austrian, Czech and Slovakian counterparts on Wednesday.

In the video, Mr. Szijjártó said that during the conference he had informed the participants of the fact that several large factories operating in Hungary have resumed operations. “The owners of these plants also operate factories in the countries of the Visegrád Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), Germany and Austria, and accordingly Hungary is prepared to introduce regulations that enable people working within a single company group to travel outside the commuting zone for work purposes, in view of the fact that this is in the interests of all our national economies”, he emphasised. He added that preparations for the related decision are in process.
“The Austrians and Slovakians have both agreed to the fact that students who live in Austria or Slovakia, but who go to school in Hungary and will be taking their final exams this year, will not have to go into home quarantine on returning home after sitting their examinations”, he highlighted. “Austria is also making this possible for those who accompany examinees, but Slovakia has not decided on this as yet”, he added.

Mr. Szijjártó said it was good news that the Slovakians have decided against their plan to make the entry of commuters into Slovakia dependent on a negative coronavirus test, and accordingly Hungarian commuters will continue to be able to freely cross the border using the ten border crossing points that are currently open to them.

The Minister said that during the meeting he had asked Austria to open the Jánossomorja and Alsószölnök border crossing points to commuters, and Slovakia to allow commuting via the Tornanádaska and Letkés border crossing points, and to enable freight traffic to use the Bánréve border crossing point.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that the four countries had successfully cooperated with relation to bringing home citizens who had been stranded abroad: “Many Hungarians have been able to come home aboard the flights organised by the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia, and the opposite is also true”. “There are currently a large number of Hungarian citizens in the United States who would like to come home; we will be sending an aeroplane to pick them up next week”, he stated.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)