Orbán cabinet: Hungary exempt from the provisions of the new EU sanctions package
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Hungary has staved off threats endangering its energy supply, having obtained exemptions to provisions in the new European Union sanctions package, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Brussels on Monday.
In the press conference held during the break of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council, which discussed the twelfth sanctions package against Russia, Hungary quashed a deadline for ending the exemption it has enjoyed to buy Russian crude oil through the Druzhba Pipeline.
Without the pipeline, Hungary and Slovakia would not be supplied adequately since Croatian transit capacity was too limited, he said.
As well as defeating “this hostile step”, Hungary appeared to have secured the extension of the rule which expired on Dec 5 enabling Hungarian oil and gas company Mol to continue exporting refined Russian crude oil to the Czech and Croatian markets.
Szijjártó said the sanctions package would not be vetoed if the important economic interest of Hungary were not undermined.
Hungary does not need exemption of Russian energy. The Hungarian government’s only concern is the welfare of the Hungarian people. If other EU countries want to observe the sanction, it is their decision.
@mariavontheresa – this is not quite how treaties, which Hungary signed up to voluntarily, generally work.
the (perhaps hard) truth is, you relinquish part of your sovereignty:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/about-parliament/en/in-the-past/the-parliament-and-the-treaties/maastricht-treaty
#Memberoftheclub