Hungary will connect Austria and the Balkans with Chinese help and Europe’s top border crossing

Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, announced the building of Europe’s largest border crossing with Serbia and Chinese partners during the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Europe’s top border crossing will be in Hungary

Szijjártó announced that the new border crossing will connect Serbia and Hungary, and will be Europe’s biggest, safest and fastest. “The Röszke border crossing is busy. Unfortunately, we are all familiar with photos of long car and truck queues there”, the Hungarian foreign minister added.

A government decree about building a border crossing at the Hungarian-Serbian border appeared on 4 March in the Hungarian Gazette. The decree called ministers concerned to compile a feasibility study for a so-called “Röszke 3” expressway border crossing. Furthermore, the decree requested preparatory works to build a new border crossing at Tompa.

What does this mean?

The M5 motorway leaves Hungary to Serbia at the Röszke border crossing. Röszke 2 is for those who do not want to travel from or to Serbia on motorway. The government aims to create a Röszke 3, another motorway border crossing.

Tompa does not have a motorway connection, and Telex suspects the Orbán cabinet would like to extend the Hungarian expressway system there. The Hungarian news outlet found out how.

Currently, the M5 motorway is one of the busiest in Hungary, giving place for transit between Western Europe and the Balkans. János Lázár, Hungary’s construction and transport minister, terminated more than 270 construction projects in 2023. Later, he gave the green light to 24. Two are expressway constructions. They aim to connect Serbia with Hungary’s least busy motorway, the M6.