New anti-Russia EU sanctions: here is the Hungarian government’s standpoint

Hungary’s government will not support EU sanctions that go against the country’s national interests, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Brussels on Friday, adding this meant that Hungary did not support imposing a price cap on Russian gas, which for now was off the agenda.

According to a foreign ministry statement, Szijjártó told a press conference after a special session of the European Union’s Energy Council that the body had approved the European Commission’s latest package of proposals “amid the most severe energy supply crisis of all time”.

The EC’s package mandates a 5 percent cut in energy consumption in peak hours. It proposes allowing member states to intervene in the retail prices of electricity on a voluntary basis. Further, the plan proposes capping the revenues of so-called “inframarginal” electricity producers and levying a solidarity contribution on the extra profits of companies in the oil, coal, gas and refinery sectors, Szijjártó said. Because these last two measures are already in effect in Hungary, they do not present new obligations, he added.

“This package is inadequate when it comes to resolving the current energy supply crisis in Europe,” Szijjártó said.

“In any event, it perhaps doesn’t cause much harm at this point, but I doubt it will be of much help.”

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Szijjártó welcomed that the proposals did not include a price cap on gas, saying that such a measure would make it impossible for Hungary to receive gas. “Everyone knows, because the Russians have made it clear, that if the European Union imposes a price cap, they will completely stop gas deliveries to Europe,” he said. The minister said such a proposal was “hypocritical”, arguing that it would clearly be a political decision rather than an economic one. It would also count as a sanction, whose approval requires unanimity among member states, he added.