EU Decision Procedure Concerning Metro Line 4 is Proceeding According to Plan23 April 2009
The National Development Agency, citing official information issued by Brussels, rejects allegations claiming that the European Commission has rejected some of the documents of the Budapest Metro Line 4 investment.
The fact that Hungary has submitted the highest number of major projects to Brussels from among the member states of the European Union demonstrates the success of Hungary’s development policy. These investments are also extremely important, because major investments elaborated to a high standard represent responses to the challenges the building industry and Hungarian labour market is facing in the context of the international financial and economic crisis.
Hungary named over 40 major projects, out of which 22 projects have already been approved by the Government. We have already sent 19 of these to decision-makers in Brussels, which means that beyond the 5 major projects approved so far, a further 14 projects are currently awaiting approval in Brussels. All of these projects are transport development or environmental protection investments and, due to their value, need to be approved by Brussels. (The vast majority of major projects are investments exceeding 13 billion HUF in value, whilst the maximum value of environmental protection projects is 6.5 billion HUF. Therefore, beyond approval by the Government of the given member state, the approval of the European Commission is equally needed in the case of these major projects.)
Hungarian major projects include, among others, major transport developments, such as, the construction of Metro Line 4, the development of the tramway network in Debrecen and Miskolc, the construction of Motorway M7 and Highway M43, as well as the development of the Kelenföld–Székesfehérvár train line. However, major environmental protection developments, such as, the sewerage network and waste water programme in Nyíregyháza, or the waste water programme in Makó and its surrounding region are also awaiting approval in Brussels.
The National Development Agency rejects allegations claiming that the European Commission has refused to accept some of the documents of the Budapest Metro Line 4 investment. In any case, regional policy spokesperson Mr Dennis Abbot was not able to justify the grounds of these allegations either.
NDA hopes that this major investment will be given the green light as soon as possible, which will enable the development to continue with the help of EU funding.