INITIAL SCOPING PHASE OF A STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) OF THE MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT CORRIDOR WARSAW-BUDAPEST FINAL IN-COUNTRY SCOPING REPORT, HUNGARY Tamás Fleischer The project team wishes to express its sincere appreciation to all those without whose help it would not have been possible to carry out this project in the time en- visaged. Care was taken to include all comments received and to reflect many views. However this document may not be interpreted as representing any views other than those of the authors and is not an official standpoint of the institutions represented by individuals who commented on it. Any remaining inaccuracies are attributable solely to the authors. 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The task of the Warsaw-Budapest inter-regional transport corridor is not just connecting the two cities, but connecting the regions, namely all the regions that fall into the given zone. The corridor does not end either at Warsaw, or Budapest, but it goes on in northern, and southern directions. In 1977 ten countries agreed upon the building of a North-South motorway of the Trans-European Motorway system (TEM). In the 90s with the abolition of the iron curtain the stress was solely put onto the East-West corridors, and the Eastern exten- sion of the TEN. The elongation of the TEN became the basis for the TINA network, and is still considered as priority by the European Union. In the high-priority magistral network of TINA there is no connection between Slovakia, and Hungary East from Bratislava in a 660 km long borderline.