Hungary and Austria have agreed to reopen the old border crossing point at Hegyeshalom after frequent queues at the motorway crossing caused problems for daily commuters, the foreign minister said on Friday.
“Several tens of thousands of Hungarians commute to Austria for work on a daily basis, and given that only nine border stations are open due to travel restrictions, they are often forced to endure long waits,” Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook.
He said István Nagy, the minister of agriculture, had already indicated when the restrictions were first put into place that commuters living near Mosonmagyarovar were having to deal with heavy traffic at the motorway border crossing point at Hegyeshalom and that farmers could not even enter Austria because their vehicles are not allowed on motorway.
Szijjártó said that after discussing the issue with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg, they had agreed to reopen the old Hegyeshalom border station on route 1 from early Friday morning. The border crossing will be open to commuters and farmers between 5am and 10am and between 5pm and 8pm, the minister said.
Featured photo illustration by Csaba Krizsán/MTI