Hungarian minister Szijjártó criticises Ukraine’s proposal to close energy transit routes as ‘unacceptable’
Péter Szijjártó said in a post on Facebook that Ukraine’s foreign ministry had reacted “rather aggressively” to news reports on Tuesday on rising gas prices resulting from the decision to scrap the transit route leading through Ukraine. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, he added, Ukraine’s parliament had registered on its website a bill aimed at closing oil and gas delivery routes from Russia during a state of war.
“With respect, we must remind our Ukrainian colleagues that there is a reality that exists and that there are rights and obligations,” the minister said. He said the reality was that the admission of new European Union members required the unanimous approval of existing member states. Szijjártó also said that all countries had the sovereign right to decide from what source and via which route they buy and access the energy needed for their operations. He said that no outside entity had a say in this, and no one had the right to force “more expensive and less reliable” energy imports onto another country.
Meanwhile, he said that a country that signs an association agreement with the EU and wants to join the bloc has an obligation to contribute to the community’s energy security by ensuring the necessary delivery routes. That was why, he said, the closing of either natural gas or crude delivery routes was “unacceptable” and went against expectations that have to be met when it comes to EU integration.
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Fun to hear Hungarians about rights and obligations when they are the first to fall regarding rule of law at European level. Please tell me more
@jose – good point. And then there is the popular “Sovereignty!” – “mycountryFIRST!” chant.
Basics. Any agreement generally has a term and termination clause. So, at some point, an agreement will terminate, unless extended or renewed by the parties, or either (or any) of the party can terminate the agreement.
So. Ukraine fulfilled its obligations under the agreement, until it decided not to renew. Which, given the fact you´re basically funding your attacker’s military by allowing it to sell through your country, is not entirely unexpected.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russia-halts-gas-exports-europe-via-ukraine-2025-01-01/
Not touching Mr. Szijjártó´s point: “expectations regarding European integration”… He does, however, like to point fingers and call people and institutions “hypocrites”. Oh, the irony.