Meeting of EU foreign ministers: this is the latest Hungarian position on the oil embargo – UPDATE
Current proposals regarding the European Commission’s sixth sanctions package against Russia in respect of gas and oil supplies are unacceptable, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Brussels during a break in a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Hungary has proposed exempting oil pipeline deliveries in the case of an EU oil embargo, the minister told Hungarian journalists. This, he added, would be the simplest solution, meeting the needs of Brussels without putting countries that receive oil by pipeline “in an extremely difficult position”, he added.
Szijjártó vowed that the Hungarian government would never let Hungarians pay the price of war in terms of their security, be it physical, energy or economic.
The European Commission, “while it is aware of Hungary’s interests, its sensitive points and its position, has made a proposal that inherently involves the possibility of compromising EU unity,”
Szijjártó said. The proposal could mean “no less than a nuclear bomb for the Hungarian economy”, and if passed “the country and its economy would become impossible to operate in a physical sense”, he said.
Concerning the economic and environmental aspects of the proposal, Szijjarto said:
“Brussels expects Hungary to invest many hundreds of millions of euros in its crude oil infrastructure” while urging the abandonment of fossil fuels and promoting renewables. “Could anyone seriously think that we should make an investment of 280 billion forints just to increase the price of fuels by 55-60 percent and contribute to general inflation?” he said.
Threatening to shut down pipelines “is unacceptable”, Szijjártó said. “It is unacceptable that some are seeking to make the lives of innocent people difficult through such measures, cutting off energy from countries that are not to blame for the war,” he said. “It is legitimate to expect such measures not to be taken,” he added.
As we wrote today, currently the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL makes a huge revenue from Russian oil, this is how.
Source: MTI
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2 Comments
Tired of seeing the EU complaining that Hungary will not agree to oil/gas sanction. If the EU is serious, each member can unilaterally stop buying Russian oil/gas. The reason why EU countries such as Germany, Holland, etc., do not suspend usage of oil/gas because they cannot and are happy to blame Hungary for their cowardice.
We are getting lots of cheap oil and gas – Russia is right to expect we will do everything in our power to continue this mutually advantageous relationship!
Gazprom and MVM signed a GREAT gas deal for the next fifteen years in September of last year, which already (premonition?) circumvented Ukraine for deliveries. The deal must be upheld!