Breaking – Hungarian veto killed EU rebuff on Putin’s demand about gas payments in rubles
The European Union wanted to accept a joint statement rejecting Putin’s latest blackmail to pay for Russian energy in rubles. However, the Hungarian government vetoed it. The leaked explanation is incomprehensible, the Hungarian media outlet says.
According to Azonnali, EU leaders held an unofficial consultation in Brussels last Thursday. They called together the crisis summit because Russian President Putin had announced that from the 1st of April the country would accept gas payments only in rubles from unfriendly states. Gazprom added that they would stop sending gas to states refusing to do so, even if that means ending gas transportation to EU member countries.
EU members would have refused Putin’s blackmailing in a joint statement. However, the Orbán cabinet killed the motion with a surreal explanation – the Hungarian opposition-close media outlet wrote today.
Regarding the information, Azonnali referred to two tweets shared independently yet almost simultaneously. No official statement has been published about the unofficial summit yet.
Nick Gutteridge, a Brussels correspondent of The Sun, wrote that Hungarians killed the joint EU refusal. The Orbán administration argued
it was a matter of private firms, and the EU should not get involved.
Joe Barnes, the Brussels correspondent of the Telegraph tweeted about the negotiations, too. He referred to an EU diplomat who said that
what happened was ‘Classic Orban, playing for team Putin.’
Népszava said that EU members made it clear earlier that they do not support paying for Russian gas in rubles. French President Emmanuel Macron said on 25th March that such demands harm Russia’s gas shipment contracts. Germany said the same. Economy minister Robert Habeck added that he would not let Russia blackmail his country. However, he added Berlin would prepare for every scenario. Olaf Scholz cleared later that they checked the contracts and they would pay for Russian gas in USD and EUR.
The German government announced yesterday that they received guarantees that Europe would be able to pay for Russian gas in EUR in the future. They would pay for the Gazprombank, which would convert foreign currency to rubles.
Source: Azonnali, Népszava, Forbes, Portfólió