Hungarian energy security in danger? Minister warns of tripling utility bills
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó warned that a plan drafted by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would put an end to Hungary’s energy security, addressing a conference in Athens on Wednesday.
Szijjártó told the Financial Times’ Energy Transition Summit that the RePowerEU roadmap for phasing out the European Union’s imports of Russian gas and oil by the end of 2027 would “ruin” Hungary, as the country couldn’t manage its energy supply without deliveries from Russia. He warned that, if the plan was implemented, the cost of Hungary’s energy supply would climb by an annual EUR 2bn, causing household utility bills to double or triple.
Szijjártó said Hungary’s energy supply was determined solely by geography and infrastructure, not by politics or ideology. He added that Russia had been the most dependable source of energy for Hungary so far. “That is not a political declaration. That is not for ideological reasons. Rather, it is based on facts and our experience,” he said.
Szijjártó noted that Hungary, a landlocked country, had spent several hundred million euros on interconnectors with the energy networks of its neighbours in recent years. He also called out the EC for failing to provide financial support for the expansion of the gas network in Southeast Europe to support diversification.
He said the plan to phase out Russian hydrocarbon imports would violate Hungary’s sovereignty, as decisions on the national energy mix were in the scope of power of member states, according to the EU treaties. Instead of supporting diversification, the plan would lead to strong dependency, he added.
Szijjártó said the government would fight against the plan in order to preserve Hungary’s energy security. “We’re not alone in the matter, as Slovakia is in a similar situation and depends on the same delivery routes,” he added.
He welcomed the exclusion of Russian nuclear fuel from the plan, but suggested a close cooperation between the nuclear energy industries of Western Europe and Russia were the reason for the decision. “That isn’t a problem, but a double standard shouldn’t be applied,” he added.
Szijjártó said energy diversification was important for Hungary’s government, but only in the sense of tapping new sources, not exchanging one source of supply for another.
Szijjártó: Russia ready to provide cheap gas
Despite all the difficulties, Russia is willing to provide cheap natural gas and crude oil to Hungary, whereas utility prices in Hungary would multiply 2-3 times if a plan devised by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to ban Russian fossil fuel imports is approved, the foreign minister said in St Petersburg on Thursday.
The ministry cited Péter Szijjártó, saying after talks with Russian government officials and energy company representatives that the latest plans by von der Leyen and Zelensky involved banning Russian crude oil and natural gas purchases by Hungary, which would quickly result in an increase in utility fees.
“We consider this unacceptable and will not allow Brussels or Kyiv to our interfere in our sovereignty. It is our sovereign decision who we buy energy from, when, and under what contracts. We will not allow them to push us into one-sided dependence. We will not allow them to turn the two crude oil pipelines leading to Hungary into one, and we will not allow them to close the largest natural gas pipeline leading to Hungary,” he said.
“And we will also not allow them to make Hungarian families and Hungarian people pay two, three times or four times more for their utilities than so far,” he added. Szijjártó said he agreed with representatives of the Russian government and the largest energy companies to maintain strategic cooperation in energy despite the efforts by Brussels and Kyiv to undermines this.
“We will continue to rely on Russian energy, and we will continue to maintain Europe’s lowest utility fees in Hungary,” he said. “The leaders of the largest Russian energy companies have made clear that despite the difficulties and the obstacles of Brussels, they are ready to continue providing Hungary cheap natural gas and cheap crude oil,” he added.
“The construction of the new reactors in the Paks nuclear power station will continue. Crude oil supplies to Hungary will continue, and the TurkStream gas network will continue to operate at full capacity. This guarantees Hungary’s energy supplies, and what’s most important, the leaders of Russian energy companies and Russian political leaders are dedicated to securing cheap crude oil and natural gas supplies for Hungary, despite all the difficulties,” he said.
Szijjártó said politicising issues around energy supply was “extremely harmful”, with an impact on European competitiveness as “gas costs several times in Europe as in America or China”. “If we continue like this, we will certainly not be competitive,” Szijjártó warned, adding that Europe’s economic growth used to rest on modern western technologies and cheap energy from Russia. “By now, we have been cut off from Russian resources” and there is no alternative, he said.
The minister called for a return to “approaches based on rationality and common sense”. He said those values were still present in the economy, and he mentioned the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant implemented by Rosatom as an example.
Szijjártó met, among others, Russian deputy prime ministers Denis Manturov and Alexander Novak, Rosatom director general Alexey Likhachev, and Gazprom chief executieve Alexey Miller.
Read more about Hungary-Russia relations HERE.
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