Hungarian-Serbian Joint Economic Commission meets in Budapest

The Hungarian-Serbian Joint Economic Commission convened in Budapest on Tuesday.

Hungarian-Serbian Joint Economic Commission

After the meeting, at a press conference with Serbian Minister of Internal and Foreign Trade, Tomislav Momirovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, said cooperation between the two countries had benefitted both in terms of ensuring energy supply.

He noted that gas deliveries to Hungary via Serbia had reached 5.6bn cubic meters this year, while Hungary was storing 160m cubic meters of gas for Serbia.

He welcomed establishing a joint gas trading company that had become a big regional player and said a Hungarian-Serbian-Slovenian electricity bourse would launch by year-end.

Szijjártó said construction of a 310km crude pipeline from Serbia’s border to Hungary’s Danube Refinery would cost around half a billion euros. He added that construction could start next year and finish in three to three-and-a-half years.

He said a decision had been made on the site for an interconnector between the two countries’ electricity grids, which will be completed by 2028.

He said bilateral trade between Hungary and Serbia stands at around EUR 5bn, adding that headcount at border crossings had been raised to ease trade of goods.

Szijjártó touched on upgrading the Budapest-Belgrade rail line. Szijjártó said 150km of track on the southern stretch in Hungary had been laid, and the entire section would be completed by 2026.

He said state-owned energy group MVM would contribute to constructing a power plant to supply Serbia’s national stadium, which will be built in Belgrade.

Fielding questions at the press conference, Szijjártó said Hungary was unaffected by the expected end to transit deliveries of Russian gas via Ukraine. He explained that Hungary now gets most of its gas through the TurkStream pipeline.

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Addressing a Hungarian-Serbian business forum later on Tuesday, Szijjártó said both countries advocated connectivity instead of economic blocs. “Serbians are grounded in common sense, they are not restricted by ideological commitments,” he added.

He said that representatives from 118 Hungarian and 43 Serbian companies participated in the forum.

Hungary, Serbia sign agreement modifying double taxation avoidance treaty

Hungary and Serbia signed an agreement modifying their double taxation avoidance treaty in Budapest on Tuesday, the Finance Ministry said.

The agreement was signed by Norbert Izer, the state secretary for tax affairs, and József Kerekes, the state secretary at Serbia’s Finance Ministry.

Izer said the agreement, signed after a Hungarian-Serbian Joint Economic Commission meeting, was “another step” toward closer economic ties.

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