austrian focus

and Austria have both been very active in the humanitarian field, trying to ease the fate of those who left Ukraine but also by helping the population in Ukraine through financial and other means of support,” the Ambassador highlights.

Multi-faceted cross-border cooperation

Being good neighbors, taking advantage of crossborder opportunities is very important between Austria and Hungary. Ambassador Grubmayr explains that regarding bilateral relations, economic relations and tourism play an important role. Hungary is Austria's most important export partner in Central and Eastern Europe. Austria is Hungary's second most important trading partner in terms of trade volume and the third largest investor in Hungary. About 1,400 Austrian companies employ approximately 70,000 workers and about 45,000 workers commute to Austria every day. “As a good example, we should mention the cross-border cooperation program between Burgenland and Hungary in the framework of the Interreg program. This special cooperation covered not only economic fields such as the support of small and medium sized businesses that want to operate in both countries, but also cross-border education initiatives. The current focus is on environmental issues, national parks, the cultural heritage and the important issue of mobility, the connection of the railway to the Trans European Network (TEN). Besides this, there is also a bilateral cross-border rescue service agreement in the making that will further improve the coordination in the field of medical care. This is an important step forward that will directly benefit the people in the region,” Ambassador Alexander Grubmayr concludes.