Hungary and Slovakia break EU consensus with veto move

“Brussels has bowed to Kyiv” with a plan “devised by” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at creating impossible conditions for importing Russian energy, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, told a press conference after a meeting of the EU Energy Council in Luxembourg on Monday.

The plan would push Hungary into energy dependency and multiply utility costs for Hungarian families, Szijjártó said in a ministry statement, adding this is why the Hungarian and Slovak governments vetoed the decision urging the process’s advancement.

“Let me say that Brussels has bowed to Kyiv and they’re fully committed to implementing the von der Leyen-Zelensky plan,” he said, adding that the plan would cut off cheap sources of gas and oil, leading to skyrocketing utility prices in central Europe, especially in Hungary.

The minister said the commission and member states saw energy supply as a political issue. Yet landlocked central and eastern European countries do not have the same access to alternative energy sources as western European countries with a coastline, “so it’s a physical issue”, he said.

He said the rhetoric of his counterparts embraced terms such as “sovereignty, diversification, secure energy supply and solidarity”. But the plan would have the opposite effect on Hungary if realised, he added.

“This proposal seriously violates our sovereignty,” he said, noting that EU basic laws state that “energy policy decisions are a national competence”.

A ban on purchasing Russian energy would gravely endanger Hungary’s supplies and put the country in a position of strong dependence, Szijjártó said.

Currently, two pipelines supply oil to Hungary, and the plan would eliminate one of them. So Hungary would be heavily dependent on transit through Croatia. He said it was “ridiculous” to suggest this would increase Hungarian energy security, and he suggested that Croatia would maximise its profits by taking advantage of its monopoly.

Regarding gas supplies, Szijjártó said that last year Ukraine shut down its largest pipeline, while “Brussels and Kyiv now want to shut down TurkStream”, he insisted. Fully 26 billion cubic metres of gas are supplied to Hungary via these pipelines each year, he said.

The minister said the EU was silent on the issue of solidarity when Ukraine stopped gas shipments and suspended oil transits, and when Croatia multiplied transit fees to five times the European average.