A legal action has been initiated by a law firm against the town of Schattendorf in Austria, seeking compensation of 27 cents, citing the closure of a border crossing between Austria and Hungary as the cause.
The employees of the law firm wanted to reach the Hungarian town of Agfalva by passing through the Austrian town of Schattendorf in July of this year, as this according to them is the faster route.
However, since the border was closed, they had to take another route that required them to travel an additional distance of 3.4 kilometres, resulting in an extra 27 cents spent on fuel.
Not happy with the decision of Schattendorf to permit free movement within Schengen, the law firm said in court on Wednesday that the town should compensate them for their losses, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
According to Politico, the law firm said that the border closure is not in line with the Schengen Borders law.
Moreover, Kurier revealed that Mate Ruzicska who is a lawyer at the firm NZP Nagy Legal argued that they have not brought this issue to the court “out of spite”.
As Kurier explains, the town of Schattendorf is a very popular route for commuters between the two countries – Austria and Hungary.
However, since the town wanted to reduce the number of people passing through it and turn it into a pedestrian crossing point, the route was closed to commuters.
Since March, when the construction of the pedestrian crossing began, only residents living in the two neighbouring towns have been allowed to drive across the border at a limited speed.
While the law firm has required a settlement, the town of Schattendorf has rejected such a request.
The town said that all the measures it has taken were in line with the law and it rejected a settlement on the matter.
Apart from the border crossing point in the town of Schattendorf being closed, Austria just recently announced that the border controls with Hungary at the other points will remain in place for another six months.
This means that all travellers reaching Hungary through Austria and the other way around will have to undergo border checks.
Announcing the extension of the measure, the Ministry of Interior of Austria said that the decision has been taken in an attempt to combat terrorism and human trafficking across borders.