Hungary

Government issues project list for CEF2 funding

The Hungarian government has issued a list of railway projects for which it intends to seek funding support from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility 2 (CEF2) funding programme. The European Commission (EC) has recently suspended other funding streams, meaning that funds for Hungary can only be accessed under the Resilience & Recovery Fund and only 45% of Cohesion Fund sources if the government agrees to implement a set of governance reforms. There are two major projects that are planned to benefit from the CEF2 funds. Firstly, the southern rail link in Budapest worth EUR926 million (HUF364.3 billion) deals with the reconstruction of a railway ring between Kelenföld and Ferencváros, for which CEF2 funds worth EUR523 million have been requested. Secondly, the modernisation of a 46.8 km section of the Debrecen – Nyíregyháza main line is to receive CEF2 funds worth EUR405 million. However, industry insiders have also pointed out the absence of two major projects on the list. These are the railway tunnel under the Danube river in Budapest as well as the V0 freight line, which is planned to serve as a bypass for the Budapest ring line connecting Szolnok with Györ.