Reader’s Letter: the energetic future of Hungary

Reader’s letter

“Winter has come. Europe has been hardly dealing with it. Fuel and electricity prices are growing, inflation breaks new records but the wages are the same. We got used to the government advice to heat our apartments less. Now we should get used to living in the cold”, one of our readers, Marek Szymkiewicz, a Polish national wrote us recently. Below you may read his letter unchanged.

“A bathroom full of hot water became a luxury. More than that, not everyone is able to have a special traditional Christmas dish on his table. Such a situation is common for all European countries. Hungary, for instance, has the first place in the EU in terms of annual overall price increase. Also more than 1500 medicines are missing from there. Hungary, as a country which is trying to deal with a devastating fuel and energy crisis, isn’t excited about what’s going on. That’s because all the industry is based on electricity. Giving up from current exporters providing cheap energy resources creates a threat to national security. So the question arises: what to do next?

It seems logical to provide a “diversification” of the energy supplies. For example, in Hungary there is a strategy to procure “as many types of energy sources from as many resources and via as many routes as possible”, said a Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó. It is offered to import electricity from Azerbaijan, Slovenia and Romania. Fuel suppliers are replaceable too. For example, PKN Orlen is buying 143 petrol stations around the country. This once again confirms the fact that there are no hopeless situations and solutions always exist. But there is always a but in this imperfect world. Cui bono?

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Definitely, not for Hungary. Of course, a short-term problem will be solved. However, without the Hungarian own energy system, own energy sources, own power plants, only then electric security for Hungary will be guaranteed. Until that, technically, the country will be dependent or even addicted. We have already seen what it may lead to this year. In case of global political and military conflict, who knows, supplies from Azerbaijan, Slovenia and Romania will be closed. What shall we do in that case?