Hungary may end up with two ports on the Adriatic: Trieste and Koper

Over the last four years we have seen occasional references to the Hungarian government’s interest in the Slovenian Port of Koper. In January 2016, at a Slovenian-Hungarian summit, Viktor Orbán indicated that Hungary would be a ready partner in the modernization of the port and the railroad leading to it. If Slovenia decides to embark on the project, said Viktor Orbán, Hungary would be happy to join in the effort.

More than a year later, in April 2017, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó held negotiations with the Slovenian top brass and announced that “Hungary is ready to take part in the project in exchange for a long-term lease on the Port of Koper.” One of the Hungarian requirements was that Hungarian companies would be able to participate in the development of the rail connection.

At the beginning of 2018, Magyar Nemzet triumphantly announced that the “end of the negotiations over Hungarian investment in Koper is imminent” since the Slovenian parliamentary committee on foreign affairs approved talks about the details, which included a €200 million Hungarian investment in the refurbishment of the port and the railroad line. In return, Hungary would get a five-hectare parcel in the industrial park. The European Union promised €109 million in assistance. Hungary’s €200 million would give the country a 49% stake in the Divača-Koper railroad.

After new national elections were held in Slovenia and Viktor Orbán’s friend Janez Janša was unable to form a government, the project was in jeopardy. The new government wanted nothing to do with the Hungarians. Alenka Bratušek, deputy prime minister, asserted that “not one centimeter of the Port of Koper can end up in foreign hands.” It was at that point that the Orbán government’s interest shifted to Trieste, a port in Italy, where at the time Matteo Salvini, Orbán’s hero, was the minister of interior.

Prospective design of Hungary’s port in Trieste

At the beginning of 2019 Péter Szijjártó visited Italy. After a meeting with Salvini, he announced that the Hungarian government had purchased a 35-hectare parcel of land with a 300-meter waterfront for €31 million under a 60-year concession contract. The deal was praised by the government media, but experts were less sanguine about the acquisition. The area earlier had been used as an oil refinery, and the waterfront was too shallow. But that didn’t shake the government media’s joyous reception of the news. As Pesti Srácok put it, “Since Trianon it is the first time that we got to the Adriatic—Italians helped—instead of Fiume [Rijeka] and Koper it is Trieste!”

As usual, the Hungarian public heard nothing about the progress the Hungarian government was making with the companies that owned the parcel of land to seal the Trieste deal. It was only in a June 2019 interview on the Slovenian public television that Szijjártó claimed that they are very close to an agreement. Later, in an interview with Origo, the foreign minister said that, actually, “the contract of the sale is signed and will come into force in the fall,” at which time another contract will have to be signed, detailing the developments and their link to the Hungarian area. Yet, by January 2020, it was obvious that negotiations had stalled. In July 2020, Magyar Hang published an article titled “There is still no port in Trieste, but it has already cost many billions.” The paper calculated that, so far, the Hungarian government has spent at least €88 million (31 billion forints) on the venture. Moreover, this waterfront property, which will most likely end up being far too expensive in the long run, may not actually serve the needs of the country.

And so, Hungary tried to resurrect the Koper project. As Hungarian Spectrum reported on September 1, the Hungarian prime minister attended the 13^th Bled Strategic Forum, which allowed the two friends, Viktor Orbán and Janez Janša, who became prime minister again in March 2020, to discuss some matters involving the two countries. After the bilateral talks, Orbán, in an interview with the Slovenian public television, listed all the common projects that could serve the interests of both countries, of which the most sensitive was the Port of Koper and the railroad leading to it. “Hungary would gladly participate in this project because, although it already purchased part of the port in Trieste, it is also interested in Koper, if that suits Slovenia,” he said.

A recent article by R. Gábor Szűcs, associate professor at Budapest Gazdasági Egyetem, which appeared in Élet és Irodalom, is the best piece I have read on the subject. He points out that there is no question that waterborne transport is the most economical way of moving cargo and that finding a port close by is thus in the economic interest of the Hungarian consumer. Hungary receives most of its imports via two ports, Hamburg and Koper. Hamburg is more than 1,200 km away, while the Slovenian port is only about 500 km from Budapest. It is in Koper that fresh fruit arrives from Israel and Egypt twice a week. Once the fruit is picked, it can be in Budapest in two days.

So, it would obviously be advantageous for Hungary to have a presence in the port of Koper. But, so far, negotiations between the two countries have led nowhere. Earlier negotiations between the Orbán government and the left-of-center Cerar government in Slovenia failed, ostensibly because the Hungarians, in exchange for the €200 million 30-year loan, demanded 50,000 square meters of space for the storage of Hungarian goods. Now Hungary is pinning its hopes on reaching an agreement with Janša.

But given the history of fraught negotiations over the Koper deal, I’m not 100% confident that Orbán’s scheme will succeed. Janša’s government is a fragile coalition, and Koper, Slovenia’s only port on the Adriatic, is a sensitive issue. Just as a reminder, the Janša III government is the 14^th in Slovenia since 1990.

September 9, 2020