V4 agree on North-South transport links, Albania

The V4 countries will prepare a joint review of the present conditions and identify the developments that could be carried out in the European Union’s 2014-2020 budget period to eliminate the existing deadlocks.

The nations plan to encourage national scientific and research institutions to participate in development, according to the statement.

East-west transport links in these countries are traditionally more developed than the north-south connections, where motorways are missing and the railway network, built mostly at the beginning of the 20th century, is of insufficient quality.

Takács: EU must recognize progress in Albania
Earlier this week, Hungary’s Foreign Affairs Ministry Deputy State Secretary Szabolcs Takács paid an official visit to Albania with his Visegrád Four counterparts.

Takács told officials there that Hungary, in its role as current V4 leader, had organized the visit, and later imparted to media that “Albania is one of the countries that has achieved the greatest progress in the Western Balkans and the European Union must recognize this.”

Takács reiterated the V4’s support for EU integration of Western Balkan nations and stated that the countries “urge closer EU-Albanian relations, as Albania is the only country in the region which is already a member of NATO but not the EU.”