Border: Hungary-Romania
Date(s) of establishment: 1918Length of border: 448 km
Regions concerned: Hungary - Csongrád, Békés, Hajdú-Bihar and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties;
Romania - Timiș, Arad, Bihor and Satu Mare counties
The border between Hungary and Romania is 448 km in length and begins in the south with a tri-point situated in the historic region of Banat, 15 km south of Szeged where the Hungary-Serbia and Romania-Serbia borders meet. This border crosses the Pannonian Plain in the basin of the river Tisza, up to the tripoint with the Hungary-Ukraine and Romania-Ukraine borders.
History:
The Romanian-Hungarian border was established in 1918 by an international commission following the First World War, after the integration of Transylvania with Romania.
Following the Second Vienna Award of 30 August 1940, Romania was forced to cede almost half of Transylvania to Hungary, allied with Germany during World War II. From the summer of 1944, the Romanian army fought in battles to recover Northern Transylvania, succeeding in part with the support of the USSR. In 1947, the Paris Peace Conference restored the border that existed on 1 January 1938 and therefore returned a large part of Transylvania to Romania despite Hungarian protests.
Cross-border cooperation:
The Romanian-Hungarian border has benefited from CBC programmes since 1999, initially supported by PHARE CBC fund and from 2007 onwards by the ERDF.
On 21 December 2007, the European Commission approved the cross-border cooperation programme between Hungary and Romania for the period 2007-2013 with a total budget of € 275 million. This programme covers the whole of the Romanian-Hungarian border and is primarily aimed at protecting the environment, facilitating foreign direct investment (FDI) and helping the development of small and medium enterprises, which suffer from structural weaknesses. Several priorities have been established:
- 1st priority: establishing a common sustainable environment: improving cross-border transport infrastructure to facilitate communication between the two countries, protecting nature and water resources, combating pollution.
- 2nd priority: strengthening social and economic cohesion of the cross-border area: improving the business environment and human resources, supporting research and development, fostering cooperation on the labour market as well as in education and health.
In addition, the northern part of the Romanian-Hungarian border is covered by the CBC Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine cooperation programme, financed by ENPI funds (total budget of € 74 million). The programme covers three districts in northern Romania (Satu Mare, Maramureş, Suceava), two districts in northern Hungary (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén), two regions in Slovakia (Prešovský and Košický) and three regions in Ukraine (Zakarpatska, Ivano - Frankivska and Chernivetska). This programme finances cooperation activities in the field of economic and social development, for improving the quality of the environment, the efficient management of the border with Ukraine, and the involvement of civil society (“people to people” activities).
Finally, Romania and Hungary are part of the Interreg IVB North West Europe transnational programme and participate in the implementation of the macro-regional strategy of the Danube.
On this border there are three EGCTs – “Banat – Triplex Confinium” (around the borders between Serbia, Romania and Hungary), “Gate to Europe” and “European Common Future Building” (north of the border). In addition, there are plans for EGTCs: Bekes-Arad, UNG-TISZA-TUR (north of the border, between Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine).
Certain Romanian-Hungarian cross-border territories have organised themselves as Euroregions: Hajdu-Bihar/Bihor (2002), DKMT Danube-Kris-Mures-Tisa (1997) and Banat – Triplex Confinium (both at the Romania-Hungary-Serbia tripoint).
Territory projects and institutional bodies for cooperation
Cross-border cooperation at the regional level
Eurorégion Danube-Kris-Mures-TisaBanat Triplex Confinium
Eurorégion Hadju-Bihar-Bihor
Eurorégion Sajo-Rima ou Slana-Rimava
Eurorégion des Carpates
