Orbán opens new front with EU over Russian gas

Hungary will challenge the EU’s ban on Russian gas imports from 2027 at the European Court of Justice, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Facebook on Monday.

“Brussels’ decision today would ban Russian gas imports from 2027 — just as the [opposition] Tisza Party wants,” Orbán said. He called the measure “an obvious sanction” that needed unanimity for adoption. “We must defend our utility price cuts and caps. There can be no compromise on this!” he added.

MOL CEO sees shift in energy

In energy sovereignty we are not seeing true independence, but rather a shift in dependence, MOL chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernádi said at an energy conference organised by Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), an interdisciplinary educational institution and research centre, on Monday.

The European Union’s original plan was to increase energy sovereignty through decarbonization, but energy import dependence has barely changed, it decreased only from 60pc to 58pc between 2019 and 2023, Hernádi said.

New dependencies

By turning away from Russian fossil fuels, the EU has opened up space for LNG from the US, and the EU has become the largest market for it. In 2024, the EU imported more than 100bn cubic meters of LNG, almost 45pc of which came from the US, more than double the amount in 2021, he said.

Hernádi noted that new dependencies have been created with the development of renewables. He highlighted the import of solar panels, of which more than 90pc comes from China, but similar proportions are also found in the case of batteries and critical raw materials.

Sovereignty = many supply routes

We should learn from China’s energy sovereignty strategy as it is building up reserves, expanding coal and renewable energy production, while reducing import dependence and decarbonising. In contrast, the EU has prioritized emissions reduction above all else, and in the process has caused serious competitiveness and sovereignty problems, he said.

• Hungary launches legal proceedings to annul the REPowerEU regulation and enable Russian imports

“The key to sovereignty is as many sources and as many supply routes as possible,” Hernádi added.

We covered in a separate article how Hungarian oil and gas giant MOL acquired majority stake in Serbia’s NIS from Russia changing the regional market.

Featured image: depositphotos.com