Orbán cabinet defends utility price cap amid gas price hike, strongly criticises EU and Ukraine
The government is protecting utility price reductions even after the 20 percent rise in gas prices in Europe on the back of Ukraine’s decision cease gas deliveries from Russia, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said on Tuesday.
“By now even the most fanatic Brusselites don’t contest that the European Union’s competitiveness had deteriorated sharply,” Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook. Gas prices, which are now higher in Europe than in most competing countries, are one of the main reasons for this, he added.
“At the same time, European natural gas prices have increased mostly due to measures that deliberately cut the amount of gas delivered, such as sanctions or other political steps to cut out certain resources or the closing of certain delivery routes,” he said. “Europeans are clearly the ones most harmed by those measures.”
Meanwhile, Hungary made an effort to diversify its delivery routes in recent years, Szijjártó said, adding that this ensured the security of energy supplies, “even if we do feel the impact of rising European prices”. Since the decision to scrap the transit route leading through Ukraine to central and eastern Europe in mid-December, the price of gas in European markets has jumped by 20 percent, he added.
“Ukraine’s decision has again put the European economy in a difficult situation, even though the country is a candidate for accession,” he added.
Szijjártó said that since Ukraine’s move had been especially harmful to central Europe, he had discussed the situation with Slovak counterpart Juraj Blanar. “We were in agreement that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement should be honoured by both parties, and that the pact also has provisions on keeping up energy delivery routes.”
related article – Support from Brussels: Hungary to expand renewable energy in district heating with €238M investment plan
Szijjártó said that during the debates surrounding the construction of the TurkStream pipeline a few years ago, “we were threatened by our allies, who tried to dissuade us from the investment in a friendly way,” he said. Landlocked Hungary would now be in a tight spot had it not withstood the “friendly” pressure then, Szijjártó said. He said that under the current circumstances, Hungary’s energy supply was secure. At the same time, he said that Ukraine’s decision to turn off the gas taps had led to higher prices, posing yet another challenge to the competitiveness of central Europe and the EU.
“Still, Hungary will continue to protect the achievements of its utility price caps, even in this challenging environment, and we will continue the cooperation with our partners in the region,” he said. As we wrote earlier, breaking the myth, Russian gas costs Hungary more than alternatives.
related article: Solution to problems caused by US sanctions on Gazprombank close, says Hungarian minister
As regards transit through Ukraine, the issue is really very simple. Ukraine was attacked by Russia, Ukraine is a sovereign country and upon expiry of gas transit agreements it unilaterally decided to not renew these as it would facilitate Russia transmitting its gas to its end customers. As a sovereign country it’s entitled to do as it sees fit with its pipeline and in the process of doing so voluntarily loses 1B Euros. Had Russia not attacked Ukraine, the latter would remain willing to allow gas to pass through its pipeline but in the current circumstances it sees no reason to facilitate the business of its enemy. The risk of harm this presents to end clients was present from day 1 of the conflict and is a key reason why countries have sought to de-risk by moving away from Russian energy. Any country that elected not to do so took this decision acknowleding the risk that Ukraine wouldn’t seek to renew agreements upon their expiring. That event has now come to pass and there’s absolutely nothing anyone can do to force Ukraine to reopen its pipeline to Russian gas.
Nothing is as stupid as EU citizen, barring Hungarians. EU Parliament put sanctions on Russian energy supply. Now Europeans are running out of energy to heat their homes, drive their cars and cook their food. What does the EUP do, mandate raising prices of energy thereby further impoverishing the citizens.
Hungarians should just say thank you to P.M. Orban. Hungary has enough energy; Hungary stopped using the Ukrainian pipeline.
The proof is in the pudding, the EU Parliament is staffed with stupid anti-European war mongers.