energy crisis in Hungary

Hungary’s government rejects pressure on energy policy

szijjártó

Hungary’s government rejects all attempts at political pressure on where it buys its energy, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Tokyo on Tuesday, adding that national interests would always determine the government’s energy policy.

The three major crises faced by the world over the last five years all had a negative impact on energy markets, putting countries without a coastline or an abundance of gas or oil fields in an especially difficult situation, Szijjártó said at the Global Energy Security Talks conference, according to a ministry statement.

In his address, Szijjártó warned of mounting ideological and political pressure on energy markets, saying the recent period had demonstrated the importance of carrying out a responsible energy policy. He said this involved the government ensuring a country’s uninterrupted energy supply while also taking into consideration environmental protection aspects.

Szijjártó said this was only possible “if we get rid of the ideological approach and . if we get rid of hypocrisy”. Hungary, he added, stood by its position that energy supply was not a matter of ideology or politics, but one of physics and mathematics.

He noted that the sanctions imposed in response to the war in Ukraine had resulted in an energy crisis, while western Europeans “are proud of themselves that they got rid of Russian energy sources”. He added, however, that in reality, they were instead importing oil through third countries like India, and Russia also had the biggest share of western European LNG imports.

The minister also discussed the problem of pressure to diversify energy sources when the European Union did not want to contribute to infrastructure developments and spoke out against discrimination against nuclear energy.

Szijjártó said the Hungarian government rejected all forms of political pressure on where it chooses to buy its energy from and would always choose the best solution according to national interests.

He said decisions concerning the energy mix must remain within the EU’s national competence, and they should also consider a member state’s circumstances.

Hungary, he said, viewed the green transition as a means to preserving the planet rather as a political ideology or a monopoly. He added that Hungary was one of 21 countries that had managed to increase its GDP while reducing its harmful emissions.

Szijjártó underlined the need to find a balance between boosting competitiveness and environmental protection.

He highlighted three prerequisites for a responsible, carbon-neutral global energy policy of the future. The first, he said, was to ensure the role of nuclear energy, arguing that industrial growth would double the demand for electricity by the end of the decade, and nuclear reactors were the cheapest, safest and most sustainable energy sources for satisfying it.

He noted that the ongoing upgrade of Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant involved a Russian general contractor in addition to American, German and French companies, adding that this could offer hope for a return to peaceful international cooperation.

Szijjártó said the second requirement was the transport sector’s transition to electric vehicles, on which a political decision has already been made in Europe. He added that this was also impossible without global cooperation, highlighting Hungary as a key meeting point for the sector’s Eastern and Western players.

Thirdly, Szijjártó underlined the need infrastructure developments related to energy supply, saying there was “no unnecessary infrastructure”.

He said the Hungarian government understood “diversification” of its energy supply to mean tapping new sources rather than replacing existing ones. He said this process was under way despite the EU not financing infrastructure developments in southeast Europe, arguing that gas would no longer be part of the energy mix in 15 years’ time.

“They might be right . but there are 14 winters to go, for which we have to ensure the safe supply of energy,” he said, adding that it was important to “avoid any kind of aggressive, artificially quick phase-out of gas from the national energy mixes”.

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Uzbekistan Hungary concludes important new agreements and resumes direct flights

Uzbekistan Hungary cooperation

Hungary and Uzbekistan have profited dramatically from their friendship and are ready to expand cooperation further, including in the energy sector, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said in Tashkent on Tuesday.

Speaking at a Hungarian-Uzbek mixed economic committee meeting, Péter Szijjártó said bilateral trade surpassed 100 million euros last year, and Hungarian companies were preparing to invest in Uzbekistan.

The two countries are also ready to triple their joint investment fund to 150 million dollars to ensure support for every project, Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement.

Szijjártó said cooperation was expected to expand to the energy sector in the future. Uzbekistan’s electricity demand is expected to double by 2030. “Realistically, producing large quantities of cheap, sustainable, and safe energy is only possible through nuclear energy,” he said, adding that Hungary was supporting Uzbekistan’s nuclear program and that the training of Uzbek experts had already started there.

He said the two countries have also agreed that Uzbekistan would use Hungarian cooling technology should it sign a contract with Russia’s Rosatom to construct a new nuclear plant.

Szijjártó said Hungary’s friendly relations with Central Asia went back in 2010. Then, the country faced criticism from several Western countries “who have since changed their tune as it turned out that the region is rich in rare earths, and that there is a need for new transport routes between East and West,” Szijjártó said.

Later on Tuesday, Szijjártó met Laziz Kudratov, Uzbekistan’s minister for investment, industry, and trade. In a joint statement, the ministers said bilateral trade has grown by 86 percent since 2010, surpassing 100 million US dollars last year. He said that a Hungarian pharmaceutical company is preparing to build a factory in Uzbekistan, and preparations are in the home run for a 165 million US dollar chicken processing plant. Further, OTP Bank’s presence in the country offers Hungarian investors opportunities.

He added that

Tashkent has also pledged to set up a 50-hectare special investment zone for Hungarian companies.

He said direct flights between Budapest and Tashkent will resume on June 30. As we wrote before, Budapest flights to Uzbek capital resume, details HERE.

The minister said the scholarship program launched by Hungary is very popular in Uzbekistan. 170 students are accepted at universities in Hungary each year, and more than a thousand have already applied for this academic year, Szijjártó said.

Our news portal was invited to Tashkent International Investment Forum 2024. Read our coverage of the event here.

Szijjártó: Civilised East-West cooperation is increasingly important

The economic performance of European countries is thoroughly affected by their collaboration with China, with Eastern investments and trade hugely significant from the point of competitiveness and growth, the foreign minister and trade said on Tuesday.

The ministry cited Szijjártó as saying in Tashkent that civilised East-West cooperation was increasingly important because galloping economic growth is currently occurring in the East rather than in the West.

He cited the example of China, noting that Chinese investments and bilateral trade “have a major influence on European economies”.

“Countries able to preserve their achievements and develop fast are developing cooperation with the East most effectively and quickly,” he added.

Szijjártó said that in the current era of wars and crises, trends are developing towards the formation of blocs worldwide.

“This goes against our national interests. Our goal is that the upcoming period should be dedicated to making connections and not forming blocs,” he added.

“We have been developing cooperation with Central Asia for 14 years. We recognised its importance early on when it attracted serious criticism, but by now, we have proven to be right,” he said.

Orbán’s minister: Hungary needs Russian oil, gas

Hungary is a “conservative and patriotic island in an extremely liberal ocean”, and its government is prepared to continue protecting the country’s sovereignty despite being “constantly under siege” and on the receiving end of constant attacks, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC Hungary) in Budapest on Friday.

Szijjártó called Hungary “the home of the freedom of speech and opinion”, according to a ministry statement, adding, however that the country was “under constant siege” with the use of “weapons that are mockingly called the rule of law, the freeze of European Union funds, gender propaganda and migrant quota”.

“And we here in Hungary have been successfully defending against the siege and attacks of the liberal mainstream for 14 years,” the minister said.

But, he added, the liberal mainstream could not “stomach” that every general election in Hungary since 2010 had resulted in a conservative supermajority in parliament “regardless of the formation the foreign clients lined up the opposition in”.

Szijjártó said Hungary’s economy was constantly breaking records despite it not being allowed to access the billions of euros it was entitled to. He said the explanation behind the economic records was that economic players “rely not on fake news or ideology, but their own experience”.

According to hvg.hu, Szijjártó said that the Hungarian economy could not function without Russian gas and oil because that is where the pipes come from. “Nobody can transport gas, oil in Tesco shopping bags“, he cleared.

“We took in all those fleeing Ukraine and stopped every illegal migrant”

“And my friends, despite the constant attacks, blackmail, aggressive and baseless allegations and political smear campaigns we’ve experienced over the last 14 years, we never gave up on representing our national interests or our sovereignty,” he said.

Hungarians, he said, were the only ones who had a right to decide who could or could not enter their country, so Hungary will stick to its strong protection of its borders because illegal entry was a crime and not a question of human rights.

“International law is clear,” Szijjártó said. “If someone is forced to flee their home country because of war or violence, they have a right to seek protection in the first safe country. Not the second, not the third, not the fourth, but the first safe country.”

“We Hungarians have demonstrated how this works,” he said. “We took in all those fleeing Ukraine and stopped every illegal migrant.”

“We have not given up on our sovereignty”

The minister also talked about Hungary’s thousand-year Christian statehood, saying it was Christianity that had helped the country survive every occupation, period of oppression and dictatorship.

Hungary also insists that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, that a family consists of a father, a mother and children, and that the father is a man and the mother a woman, he added.

The government, he noted, was also sticking to its position that lives in Ukraine can only be protected by securing a ceasefire and achieving peace and that weapons deliveries would only prolong the war, while sanctions have proven pointless.

The Hungarian government has also stuck to its position that the matter of energy supply was a physical one, he said.

“Our dear friends, we have not given up on our sovereignty,” Szijjártó said. “We have not given up the exclusive right to deciding on our future. We don’t accept . interference from the outside in Hungary’s internal affairs.”

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Featured image: depositphotos.com

Enhancing energy sovereignty important for Hungary, Orbán cabinet says

Energy electricity MAVIR consumption (Copy)

Enhancing energy sovereignty is an important goal for Hungary, and renewables, natural gas power plants and nuclear energy are needed to achieve that, the energy ministry’s state secretary told a conference focusing on green energy and Hungary’s climate policy on Tuesday evening.

Speaking about renewable energy sources, Attila Steiner highlighted “the best potential” Hungary had in solar energy, noting the country’s current capacity of over 6,000 MW.

“This combined with the output of the Paks nuclear plant goes to show that Hungary is capable of producing 8,000 MW of CO2-free electricity, if there is sunshine,” he said, adding that periods without sunshine created a problem.

This is why storing energy is key, he said. Steiner noted the launch of a subsidy scheme for building huge storages that will allow increasing the current capacity of 25 MW to 400-500 MW.

Steiner said that by 2030 Hungary’s electricity consumption will increase by 50 percent, due partly to general industrial development considerations, electric car and battery plants, which he said are all electricity-intensive areas.

“We should not be afraid of this, but we need to create conditions and launch investments that allow moving into this direction, because this will be the key to Hungary’s economy in the future.”

Read also:

  • Fidesz: Brussels applies double standards to Hungary and Germany – Read more HERE
  • Hungary to be in the top 5 in green energy storage worldwide by 2030, says official – details in THIS article

5th Budapest LNG Summit: ideologies are not important when it comes to the energy business, says minister

Budapest LNG Summit 2024

Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said at the 5th Budapest LNG Summit on Tuesday that security of supply and price are the sole factors determining the government’s energy policy. “We don’t take political or ideological considerations into account,” he said.

The crises of recent years could well have spurred “a return to common sense, but we have seen just the opposite”, he said, adding that treating energy as a political issue jeopardised the security of supplies, which should be based on “physical realities rather than political ideology”.

“We are not ready to give up any partnership that has proven reliable in terms of energy supplies, and we will not terminate any contracts that we benefit from,” Szijjártó said.

The minister highlighted the importance of diversification, explaining that the government’s interpretation of the term centred on “securing new resources rather than excluding existing ones”.

Given Hungary’s geographical location, the country depends heavily on the region’s infrastructure, so developing the regional network “is crucial, even if European politicians often disregard the fact that gas cannot be transported in a bag or backpack,” he said. “The infrastructure determines the energy mix and impacts on relevant decisions. Boosting capacities is of vital importance… For us there is no such thing as a redundant gas pipeline,” he added.

He called construction of the TurkStream pipeline “a success story”, and said Hungary would contend with severe difficulties without it. He highlighted Hungary was the first country apart from Türkiye’s neighbours to import Turkish natural gas. Read our latest news: gas supplies from Türkiye to Hungary to start in April.

He also mentioned achievements of the Slovak-Hungarian interconnector, enhanced pipeline capacity between Hungary and Romania, a supply deal with Shell on LNG, and cooperation with Azerbaijan in the area of gas supplies.

Szijjártó regretted that “Western partners” had “abandoned” Romania’s LNG project, adding that Romania would hopefully start production in the future and Hungary would be among potential purchasers of its LNG.

The minister accused the European Union of reducing aid for energy infrastructure developments in south-east Europe, insisting those projects were critical for diversification. He slammed the European Commission, saying its position was that “developing the network was unnecessary because natural gas had no future and it would not be in the energy mix in 15 years.”

“Even if that were true … what about supplies for the next 15 years? Hungary continues to reject aggressively and artificially removing natural gas from the energy mix… We consider this economic suicide and don’t want to compromise the competitiveness of the EU further,” Szijjártó said.

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Hungary-Slovenia-Serbia regional electricity exchange deal inked

Hungary-Slovenia-Serbia regional electricity exchange deal inked

A joint Hungary-Slovenia-Serbia electricity exchange can start operating from the second half of the year, boosting the security of supply for all the countries involved, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said after the relevant deal was signed in Budapest on Tuesday.

Today’s agreement was “excellent news”, Szijjártó said at a joint press conference held with Serbian energy state secretary Veljko Kovacevic and Slovenian energy minister Bojan Kumer, after the signing of the BlueSky Project.

He said security of supply would strengthen, making trade in electricity between the countries “fast and barrier-free.” The deal also creates a larger market with a favourable impact on prices, he added.

He said the deal concerned cooperation between EU member states and an EU candidate country, “so we have taken another step in the direction of realising the energy integration” of the Western Balkans into the EU.

The minister noted that

a German-French energy exchange company backed the initiative, guaranteeing that the system would always be up to date.

He said nuclear energy most efficiently served Hungary’s electricity supply, which is why the government had decided to expand capacities.

He also referred to expanding solar power capacities, which he said had grown eightfold in the last five years.

“Our goal is to create energy systems in the region that are as integrated as possible,”

he said, emphasising electricity supply, as demand was expected to increase by 50% in central Europe by 2030.

Read also:

  • Government-close media outraged by USA saying Orbán keeps Hungary in Russian gas dependence, details HERE
  • Hungary to be in the top 5 in green energy storage worldwide by 2030, says official

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New government program helps home renewal in Hungary

New government program helps home renewal in Hungary

The government will launch a 108 billion forint (EUR 275.4m) scheme for energy improvements in homes built before 1990, the state secretary for energy and climate policy said on Friday.

The government will offer home owners who contribute 1 million forints to project costs up to 6 million of support, of which half will be interest-free credit and the other half grant money, Attila Steiner told a press conference. The subsidies may be used to replace windows and doors, upgrade water heating systems, replace furnaces and add insulation, he said.

Homes must be connected to the gas network to avail of the subsidies.

State secretary for industrial policy and technology Gergely Fábián said 20,000 family homes could be upgraded in the programme.

Read also:

  • Hungary to be in the top 5 in green energy storage worldwide by 2030, says official
  • Hungary reduces gas consumption above EU expectations

Featured image: depositphotos.com

Hungary to be in the top 5 in green energy storage worldwide by 2030, says official

green energy solar panel

Hungary is set to have the largest green energy storage capacity in the world by 2030, after China, the US and Germany, a government official said on Tuesday, also noting that its climate protection plan announced in 2020 set the goal of producing 90 percent of the country’s electricity from green, carbon dioxide-neutral sources by 2030.

“We’ve now got to the point that solar panel capacities planned for 2030 will be completed in 2024,” László György, the government commissioner for professional cooperation in economic strategic tasks, told a press conference in Nyíregyháza, in eastern Hungary.

He said various schemes had been launched to increase energy storage capacity and promote the green transition, noting 75 billion forints-worth of subsidies for households and 30 billion forints available for businesses to purchase electric cars, among other programs.

Referring to a public survey on green energy consultation the government launched recently, he said the 13-question online questionnaires can be completed by April 15. The government wants to know whether citizens support Hungary “being the leader of the energy revolution” and whether energy should be produced in an environmentally friendly way. It also wants to understand attitudes to “the domestic production and development of energy storage systems” and whether homes “should be linked to this green system”, he said.

As we wrote earlier, in the last few months, Spanish, Danish and German companies would have invested in Hungary to extend their portfolio in the skyrocketing solar power industry. However, the government introduced a new regulation which makes it almost impossible for a foreign company to invest in Hungary, details HERE.

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Featured picture: Depositphotos

Hungary reduces gas consumption above EU expectations

Hungary's gas reserves consumption energy

The energy ministry reported on Tuesday that since last April, Hungary has reduced its gas consumption by 20 percent, similar to the previous one-year period, as against the European requirement of 15 percent.

The ministry said that between 2017 and 2022, the country used an average of 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, which has now been reduced to nearly 8 billion cubic meters.

The ministry’s statement added that other EU members reduced their consumption by an average 17.7 percent.

The statement noted that the EU directive introduced in August 2022 in response to an international energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, will be a recommendation for members.

The ministry added in its statement,

“Hungary’s consistent position is that defining a member’s energy mix should stay a national competency; Hungary will not support any proposals that contradict that position.”

As we wrote a few days earlier, government-close media is outraged by the USA’s statement that Orbán keeps Hungary in Russian gas dependence; details are HERE.

Also, we wrote earlier that gas supplies from Türkiye to Hungary started on the 1st of April, details HERE.

Government-close media outraged by USA saying Orbán keeps Hungary in Russian gas dependence

Putin Orbán Russian gas disgraceful role

Index, a Hungarian government-close media outlet, is outraged by the Embassy of the United States due to a video they advertise on Facebook. The video focuses on how PM Orbán and his government keep Hungary in Russian gas dependence. Meanwhile, our NATO and EU allies in the region could get rid of Russian gas after Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Index has a special place in the Hungarian media market. The Hungarian government does not visibly control the public media or the TV2 TV channel. But it never publishes articles significantly harming the Hungarian government. For example, they did not write about the presidential clemency scandal resulting in the resignation of the Hungarian president and Fidesz’s no. 1 European parliamentary elections candidate, Judit Varga, until PM Orbán’s announcement days after the outbreak of the scandal. We detailed that sad story in THIS article. And HERE is another article about Péter Magyar, the ex-husband of former Justice Minister Judit Varga, who may launch a new and influential political party for the 9 June elections.

Péter Magyar
Péter Magyar. Source: FB/Péter Magyar

Orbán cabinet keeps Hungary in Russian energy dependence?

Considering all that, it is not surprising that Index now criticised the US Embassy in Budapest because one of their videos slammed the Orbán cabinet.

“FM Szijjártó is in Russia for an energy conference – his seventh trip to Russia since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine”, they wrote above the video dealing with Hungary’s dependence on Russian gas.

In the video, the US Embassy says the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria could reduce their dependence to almost 0 by 2023. That comes after Czechia imported 80% of its gas needs from Russia, while that rate was 57% in Poland and 77% in Bulgaria. In the European Union, 49% was the rate of Russian imported gas, but it fell to 14% in 2023.

david pressman us ambassador
US Ambassador David Pressman. Source: US Embassy Budapest

Based on the US Embassy’s video, the Orbán cabinet decided to keep up the country’s dependence on Russian energy. They showed multiple articles published in the Hungarian media about how expensive the Orbán cabinet buys Russian gas. We wrote about that in THIS article. In short, Hungary has already lost hundreds of millions of euros on the Russian gas business.

“Only Hungary’s political leadership decided to keep the country in Russian energy dependence”, the embassy’s video concludes.

Expert suggests the USA would like Hungary to buy American LNG

Index asked the energy and climate department head of the Századvég, a government-close think tank. Olivér Hortay said the European Union acknowledged that separating Hungary from the Russian gas has physical obstacles. Mr Hortay believes the US embassy slammed only that statement. However, because of its advertisement, it reached many people in Hungary. And that is why Index thought they should publish a reaction.

gas energy kitchen

Hortay said it is the right of the Hungarian government to decide which country they purchase energy from. Nobody has the right to interfere in that, Hortay added. The Hungarian government continuously repeats that they want to protect their right to decide freely in different matters (gender, war, migration, etc.), highlighting that Hungary is a sovereign state.

Hortay said Poland signed contracts with American companies to substitute Russian gas. However, that business is more expensive and less environment-friendly. Czechia does the same, but they need German pipes to transmit the gas, so they even pay an extra transport fee.

Hortay said the US Embassy’s campaign serves political and business goals. They would like to convince the Hungarian government to buy American LNG. He added that American gas was more expensive than the Russian.

Orbán and Putin Russian gas
Hungary buys Russian gas. Photo: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Hungary tries to diversify its gas market

The expert highlighted that not only Hungary kept its Russian supporters, but also Austria. The head of the OMV, for example, said they had a long-term contract with Russia, and until the Russians deliver, they will use Moscow’s gas.

In the case of Bulgaria, experts believe their Russian gas transport to Türkiye is a trick, and this is how they also get Russian fuel.

Hortay added that the Hungarian government tried to reduce its dependence on Russia. That is why they signed contracts with Türkiye, Azerbaijan, and Qatar. Furthermore, Hungary makes an effort to increase domestic production. We wrote about MOL’s oil extraction near Budapest Airport in THIS article.

MOL Campus skyscraper Budapest
MOL Campus skyscraper. Photo: facebook.com/molcampus

To conclude, the Századvég expert claims other European countries are using Russian gas, and the Hungarian government also tries to diversify its energy import. Therefore, the US Embassy’s video exerts pressure on the Hungarian government to buy American energy. On the other hand, Hungary lost hundreds of millions of euros in the Russian gas business because the market prices decreased after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Read also:

  • Russian agents operating in Hungary identified – Read more HERE
  • Orbán cabinet gets rid of foreign competitors in this skyrocketing economy branch – Details in THIS article

Official: gas supplies from Türkiye to Hungary to start in April

gas supplies from Türkiye to Hungary to start in April

Natural gas will start flowing from Türkiye to Hungary on April 1, so a “historical date is approaching,” the foreign minister said on Monday.

Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook that the contract specifies the transfer of 275 million cubic metres of gas in the next few months, making Hungary the first non-neighbouring that Turkyie exports gas to.

Turkyie has already played an important role in Hungarian energy security as a transit country, and from now on it will also be a source of energy supplies, he added.

“We will also tighten cooperation in the area of nuclear energy, as a new nuclear power station being built in Türkyie will have identical technology as the new Paks plant,” he said.

Experiences gained during the Turkish construction “will help us too,” he added.

He said Turkish professionals will also help their Hungarian partners in the technical aspects of control equipment.

Hungary and Türkiye are embarking on their broadest-ever energy cooperation as part of a new agreement after which natural gas imports from Türkiye can start in 2024, details HERE.

Atomexpo 2024 in Sochi: Hungarian Foreign Minister announces another milestone at the Paks nuclear power plant

szijjártó atomexpo paks sochi

Atomexpo 2024 in Sochi: the upgrade of Hungary’s nuclear power plant in Paks will stand as a “long-term guarantee” of Hungary’s competitiveness, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after meeting Alexei Likhachev, the head of Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom, in Sochi on Monday.

At the meeting held with the chief executive of the general contractor of the Paks plant expansion, Szijjártó reviewed the status of the construction project, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The upgrade would secure Hungary’s electricity supply for decades to come, Szijjártó said, adding that the Paks plant would supply 70 percent of the country’s demand and provide “a great degree of independence from the occasionally insane changes in the international energy market as well as from skyrocketing prices”.

Szijjártó said

works on the project were nearing another “milestone” as one of the melt traps, a key safety element in nuclear plants, has been completed and is expected to be shipped to Hungary in the second quarter of the year after the necessary tests.

Meanwhile, the minister welcomed that soil consolidation by German, American and other subcontractors was under way at the site.

“Those milestones … forecast that we can pour the first concrete by the end of the year and that the two new reactor blocks can start operations early in the next decade,” he added.

Speaking at the Atomexpo nuclear energy trade fair later in the day, Szijjártó called for nuclear energy to remain a field of international cooperation, lamenting that the field was riddled with ideological debates.

“As long as infrastructure determines energy cooperation, ideology should have nothing to do with [it],” he said.

He said that whereas nuclear energy had been “a victim of ideology” recently, Europe had “overcome” discrimination, “thanks mostly to the fact that France is a pro-nuclear country”, he said. “We were able to win our debates in Europe and make it recognised that generating electricity in a nuclear way is sustainable, safe and cheap,” he said.

Szijjártó said that severing nuclear cooperation between Europe and Russia “would be another dent in the continent’s competitiveness”, putting the EU’s green goals at risk.

He said criticism of Hungary on the issue was “hypocritical” as Rosatom was working with sub-contractors from the US, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria and Sweden at the Paks site.

“This means … on the corporate level at least, decision-makers have not lost their common sense yet,” Szijjártó said, adding that Hungary would not adopt EU sanctions against the Russian nuclear sector, as doing so would harm Hungary’s interests.

Banning nuclear cooperation would also be “strange”, as Russia was also the largest Uranium supplier to the US last year, exporting ore worth some 1 billion dollars in 2023, he added.

“I do hope that in the future rationality and common sense will prevail … and the nuclear industry will be exempt from ideological debates. I hope that we will only concentrate on professional and scientific issues…”

In Sochi, Szijjártó also met representatives of the Serbian, Turkish, Iraqi and Belorussian government.

Budapest Balkan Forum 2024 has started – UPDATE

budapest balkan forum

The two-day Budapest Balkans Forum 2024, organised by the Hungarian Institute of Foreign Affairs, started on Tuesday. This year, it will focus on energy and the Western Balkans.

After the opening speech by Márton Schőberl, CEO of the Hungarian Institute for Foreign Affairs, two Hungarian ministers, János Bóka, Minister for European Union Affairs of Hungary, and Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Minister of Defence of Hungary, expressed their views on the Balkans’ importance, ethnic and security issues of stability, and the relationship between the EU and the Balkans.

Bóka: Balkans ‘has always been part of Europe’

The natural resources of the Western Balkans have been crucial in terms of Hungary’s energy security, János Bóka, the European affairs minister, said at the international Budapest Balkans Forum.

Referring to Hungary’s upcoming EU presidency, Bóka said its priorities would include promoting the EU integration of the Western Balkans. The EU “is not as strong in the Balkans as it could be; this is why we want to put the region in the limelight,” the minister said.

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the minister of defence, who also participated in the forum, said the Western Balkans was going through a process of stabilisation, but also noted “tensions under the surface that could lead to further friction”.

Stability in the region is highly important for Hungary, he said, and noted Hungary’s presence in NATO’s KFOR mission.

After a short break, a Ministerial roundtable entitled “Securing energy, Energizing security” was held:

  • Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary
  • Ahmet Berat Çonkar, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Türkiye
  • Dubravka Đedović, Minister of Mining and Energy of Serbia
  • Igli Hasani, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania

Szijjártó: Energy security must not depend on political, ideological whim

Hungary refuses to imperil its energy supply by giving in to any political or ideological whim, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Tuesday.

Addressing the 9th Budapest Balkans Forum, Szijjártó said the Balkan region was vital to Europe’s energy security, adding that supply should be regarded as a physical rather than an ideological issue.

He said diversification would remain a pipedream unless words were followed by action.

He said that Hungary would gladly buy crude oil or natural gas from new sources, but the infrastructure had yet to be built, so existing suppliers and transit routes must be relied on.

The minister said existing suppliers should be supplemented by new sources in the diversification process rather than replaced.

Szijjártó praised the price and predictability of current gas supply and expressed appreciation for Serbia and Turkiye as “reliable transit countries”.

He said adding European infrastructure on the South-East axis would be necessary. Still, the European Commission “doesn’t want to provide financial support for this”, arguing that gas would no longer be part of the energy mix in 15 years’ time.

“Who knows what will happen in fifteen years?” he said. But in the meantime, “we don’t want to freeze, and we want to keep our industry going,” he added.

Szijjártó said increasing LNG imports did not depend on Hungary alone but on expanding Balkan capacities.

Regarding sustainable energy production, he said Hungary favored protecting the environment but rejected any attempt to form a political or ideological monopoly over green policymaking. He added that preserving the planet for future generations should be treated as a practical matter rather than approached ideologically.

Also, protecting the environment must go hand in hand with boosting competitiveness, he said.

Szijjártó said Hungary was focusing on developing solar and nuclear energy. The government wants to double the 6,000 MG of solar capacity that is now available, while the Paks nuclear plant expansion would entail reducing annual carbon dioxide emissions by 17 million tonnes.

As we wrote today, Rosatom’s chief negotiates in Hungary

Read here Budapest Balkan Forum Agenda

Rosatom’s chief negotiates in Hungary

rosatom

The first concrete foundation piles for the Paks nuclear power plant expansion will be set into the ground by the end of the year, Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday.

A ministry statement quoted the foreign minister as saying at a joint press conference with Alexei Likhachev, head of the Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom, that an equally important milestone is the completion of the first melt trap produced in Russia.

The 700-tonne melt trap is scheduled to be delivered in the autumn, while production of the reactor tank will start in April, he said.

Work on soil consolidation across 17 hectares is underway, with 8,000 out of 75,000 piles already in place. A German company is carrying out this work, which is scheduled to be completed by next summer.

Szijjártó said the project was “progressing at a good steady pace,” and it was achievable for the two new blocks to be hooked up to the grid by the start of the next decade, he said.

The minister added that the Paks expansion was “a real international” project involving German, French, Austrian, Swedish, and American subcontractors.

Read more news about Paks nuclear plant project.

Shocking: Hungary lost hundreds of EUR millions on the Russian gas business

Putin Russian president Viktor Orbán

The Orbán cabinet decided to buy Russian gas instead of purchasing it on the energy markets because they said it would be safer to deal with a reliable partner. However, as Népszava, a Hungarian left-leaning daily, calculated, the country lost tremendous money on the Russian gas business.

According to Népszava, the financial damage Hungary suffered thanks to the Russian gas business reached HUF 564 billion (EUR 1.43 billion) in only one year. That is because the currently valid Hungary-Russia gas purchase contract was signed in 2021, at the beginning of the European energy price crisis. The media outlet calculated that loss following the December 2023 data, shared by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office yesterday.

The Hungarian government signed a gas purchase contract with Putin in October 2021. Officially, two state-owned companies took part in the deal: the Russian Gazprom and the Hungarian MVM. However, everybody knows the conditions were hammered out on the highest levels of politics.

In April 2022, general elections were held in Hungary, so the Orbán government kept repeating how favourably they could conclude the talks. They highlighted that the new contract is considerably better than the one signed in 1995. FM Péter Szijjártó said the new Russian gas contract secures the Hungarian government’s main political product, the utility price reduction scheme. Of course, they did not publish the contract referring to business secrets.

Russian President Putin said in February 2022, before the invasion of Ukraine, that Hungary gets Russian gas for 1/5th of the global market price. Later, Népszava discovered that the opposite was true. The Kremlin even added 30% to the market price in their calculations. However, that did not stop the government from using Putin’s sentence in their election campaign.

Hungary’s loss on the Russian gas business was colossal in 2023

Népszava and several other Hungarian media outlets wrote that the Hungarian-Russian gas deal is based on the Dutch energy stock market’s (TTF) gas price. In October 2021, we even won EUR 210 million on the business and the price differences. But in 2023, the deal collapsed because of the decreasing global market price.

The 2021-2022 gas year brought a colossal EUR 810 million plus income, but the 2022-2023 gas year resulted in a EUR 1.43 billion loss. The balance stands at negative EUR 586 million. Thus, nobody can explain why the new contract is better than the previous one.

The Orbán cabinet still says that Russian gas is the cheapest available on the market but never supported that claim with numbers.

In 2023, Hungary bought 6.6 billion cubic metres of gas. That is a 51% surge. The last time our purchase level was this high was in 2018, with 8.4 billion cubic metres. However, Népszava suspects that Hungary sells large amounts of Russian gas even though neither the government nor the buyers mention it.

László Miklós, an energy market expert and former director of corporate relations at MOL, said that Russian gas does not support the utility price decrease scheme, which is one of the greatest weapons of the Orbán government. Its essence is that the government keeps energy prices at a 2014 level, so people pay much less than the market price. Of course, the state fills the financial gaps with taxpayers’ money. However, since the Hungarian government already signed the long-term contract with the Russians, it would not be worth leaving the framework, Mr Miklós added.

Read also:

  • This is why Orbán always wins: we explain Hungary’s unique utility price protection scheme – Read more HERE
  • FM Szijjártó happily laughing with Russian FM Lavrov on the day of Navalny’s burial – Details and VIDEO in THIS article

Hungary and Türkiye sign new agreement for the most extensive energy cooperation ever

türkiye Hungary cooperation agreement

Hungary and Türkiye are embarking on their broadest-ever energy cooperation as part of a new agreement after which natural gas imports from Türkiye can start next year, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Monday.

At the press conference held after meeting the Turkish ministers of energy, industry and trade, Szijjártó said the sides signed five agreements.

“The last few years have shown that the closer cooperation is between the two countries, the more” Hungary benefits from it, he said.

The new deal between Hungarian energy company MVM and Türkiye’s BOTAS broadens energy cooperation more than ever before, he added.

Türkiye will become a source for Hungary’s purchases of natural gas purchases next year, and cooperation will involve storage, infrastructure development, and the use of renewables and hydrogen.

Szijjártó said the EU faced “a serious energy crisis”, and, in contrast, Hungary’s supply was stable as it purchased energy “from reliable partners”.

Ankara, he added, was key to this, and more than five billion cubic meters of natural gas has already arrived this year through the TurkStream pipeline.

The minister also said cooperation in transport infrastructure development would be strengthened as Hungarian and Turkish rail construction companies V-Hid Epito and Gulermak entered into an alliance.

Hungary and Türkiye will be able to take part in major developments and investments bridging Europe and Asia as a result, he said.

Cooperation agreements also span Hungary’s national archives, the Turkish presidential office, Hungary’s Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA) and Turkish state media service provider TRT, as well as Eötvös Lóránd University and the Yunus Emre Institute.

He said both countries were “proud of our historical heritage” and “common chapters” from the past.

Szijjártó noted that Budapest and Ankara were celebrating the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Also, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will sign today an agreement on forming a priority strategic partnership.

As we wrote today, Wizz Air to increase the number of flights to Türkiye, details HERE.

As we wrote before, the Hungarian-Turkish cultural year will start today, on Dec 18 to mark the centenary that diplomatic ties were established between the two countries – details HERE

Socialists: the public gas supplier cannot temporarily “steal” its customers’ money

Natural gas burner

The opposition Socialist Party has submitted a bill aimed at making state owned gas and electricity provider MVM introduce a new practice of “fair and honest” invoicing to prevent the company from “using customers’ money without paying them an interest”.

Socialist group leader Bertalan Tóth said on Facebook on Monday that MVM routinely charged customers “unrealistically high” amounts for gas, a “trick to use their money for months”.

According to the opposition politician, the situation today is that if you use gas for cooking, heating, or water heating, chances are that your money is being used for free by the “Fidesz state” for months, as MVM regularly sends out unrealistically high gas bills to its customers.

Overbilling is a ploy by the state-owned MVM to use consumers’ money for months without interest, he said, adding that the MSZP believes that this is a way of harming gas-consuming families, as with the current record high inflation it makes a difference whose account the money is on.

Tóth quoted Energy Minister Csaba Lantos as indicating earlier that the government would not change the billing system until 2025, and slammed the government for the distant date whereas “it took but a few days to grant ministers and state secretaries a pay hike worth millions of forints”.

As we wrote earlier, Hungarian baths see huge ticket price increase.

Orbán cabinet: Hungary exempt from the provisions of the new EU sanctions package

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.

“It appears that the European Commission has accepted this and the draft of the sanctions proposal will include it; we’ll see,” he said.

Further, all sanctions proposals relating to the nuclear industry were rejected, he said. Such proposals would have rendered the expansion of Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant, which was crucial to the country’s energy security, impossible, he added.

Also, regarding financial transactions outside the European Union, the adoption of restrictions that would harm national interests were abandoned, he said, adding that the government did not support the addition of either Chinese or Turkish companies to the sanctions list.

As we wrote before, Szijjártó met with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Skopje, details HERE.

Also interesting: Hungary buys a lot of green energy, joining forces with four other countries