Orbán on phone with Slovak PM Fico: Hungarian and Slovakian experts may examine the Druzhba oil pipeline

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday announced the establishment of a Hungary-Slovakia investigative committee to clarify the status of the Druzhba oil pipeline. After speaking with his Slovakian counterpart, Orbán said the committee would be tasked with examining the situation on the ground.

In a video uploaded to Facebook, Orbán called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to allow Hungarian and Slovak inspectors in and ensure full access and the means to carry out their work. Then, he should restart the pipeline, he emphasised.

The blockade by “Zelensky and Ukraine” was dangerous not only for Hungary, but for Slovakia, too, he insisted. Zelensky’s claims that there were technical obstacles to restarting the pipeline did not correspond to what Slovakia and Hungary knew of reality, he said, adding that the pipeline had been shut down purely for political reasons.

Cheap energy needed, whether Russian or not is secondary, says the Hungarian premier

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, addressing a conference of South-Eastern European countries’ parliamentary speakers on Friday, said cheap energy was necessary to sustain both the European and Hungarian economies, and whether the energy was Russian or not was “of secondary” importance from Hungary’s point of view.

Orbán said Europe’s looming economic crisis was tied to the energy sector, noting that the bloc’s economy contended with energy prices 3-4 times higher than those of its rivals, China and the United States, and this pushed up production costs.

Hailing the Draghi report, he said that unless Europe took swift measures to reduce energy prices, the European economy would face its gravest crisis. The prime minister said that Hungary was holding up well, “but we cannot sustain ourselves indefinitely with such energy prices.”

“We need cheap energy. Whether the energy is Russian or not is secondary…” he said, adding that prices should be such as to prevent energy-intensive industrial sectors from going bankrupt.

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