‘War psychosis’ still rampant in Brussels, says FM Szijjártó

The European Union remains incapable of undertaking a realistic assessment regarding the war in Ukraine, and “war psychosis is still rampant” in the bloc, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels on Thursday.

Hungarian companies are discriminated in Ukraine, says Szijjártó

At a press conference, Szijjártó lamented that most member states thought that the war’s territorial expansion did not carry a risk of escalation, and that some of his counterparts had even said that allowing Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike targets in Russia was “a way of achieving peace”.

According to ministry statement, Szijjártó said that because of the extent to which “this goes against reality . we must conclude that this blind pro-war stance and pro-war psychosis will continue to hold sway here in Brussels in the coming months”.

He said several member states urged the EU to allocate a further more than 6 billion euros from the European Peace Facility towards weapons deliveries, adding that Hungary “will not contribute to freeing up a single euro cent as long as Hungarian companies are discriminated against in Ukraine” and measures endangering Hungary’s energy security were in effect.

Szijjártó said the EU’s foreign policy chief had tried to apply pressure in the interest of allowing the deployment of Western weapons against targets in Russia.

We have not and won’t supply weapons to Ukraine

“Hungary’s stance is clear,” the minister said. “We have not and won’t supply weapons to Ukraine, because we’re convinced that the more weapons there are in use in the war in Ukraine, the longer it will last.”

Szijjártó said there was also mounting pressure to expand and extend the EU’s training mission for Ukrainian soldiers, noting that Hungary was not participating in this, either.

“We’ve made it clear that if they want to expand either the territorial scope or function of this training mission, Hungary will not contribute to it,” he said.

He also warned against the “extremely dangerous” idea of continuing the training mission in Ukraine, saying this posed a “serious risk” of escalation. He said that if the EU wanted to extend the mission’s duration in its current form without expanding it elsewhere, Hungary would not block it, but would not support it, either.

Meanwhile, Szijjártó said several participants at the meeting had raised the subject of tightening sanctions, with some of them proposing that they be expanded to include the energy sector. He also said that “a significant number of member states . secretly and hypocritically” continued to by Russian energy.

“I think it’s every country’s and every company’s own business if they buy energy in a way that doesn’t violate the sanctions,” Szijjártó said. “But then why lie? Why be hypocritical? Why not be open, honest and straightforward about it?”

Szijjártó started his press conference by saying that though the informal meeting of foreign ministers would be traditionally held in the country holding the EU’s rotating presidency, it had been moved to Brussels with the intent of “disciplining” Hungary for its pro-peace position. He added, however, that “this won’t work”, vowing that Hungary will continue to urge peace in Ukraine.

Hungarian foreign minister slams EU foreign policy chief’s ‘dangerous’ Middle East proposals

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Thursday criticised what he called “dangerous and unreasonable proposals” put forward by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell concerning the situation in the Middle East. Speaking at a press conference after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Szijjártó said Borrell “has seemingly lost control” and was putting forward proposals “that are extremely dangerous for Europe”.

Szijjártó criticised a proposal for the EU to impose sanctions on two Israeli ministers.

“It’s an extremely dangerous and absolutely unreasonable proposal, because such a decision would raise major question marks in the Middle East, and would completely undermine the cooperation between the European Union and Israel,” Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement.

He praised Israel for its agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the launch of a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza.

“This step must be appreciated,” he said. “They wanted to adopt a joint position here today that would have criticised Israel in spite of this agreement, so we asked that it be amended.”

Szijjártó also welcomed Israel’s commitment to guaranteeing religious freedom on the Temple Mount and in the country’s holy places.

“Certain steps in the recent period have raised concern among certain Israeli politicians and certain Christian communities,” he said. “And in this respect I believe the Israeli foreign minister’s and prime minister’s public commitment to maintaining the freedom to practise religion is significant.”

EU-Türkiye cooperation in migration

Meanwhile, Szijjártó said Thursday’s meeting was also attended by Türkiye’s foreign minister, noting that there had not been such a high-level meeting between the EU and Türkiye in the last five years.

He underscored the importance of preserving the EU and Türkiye’s cooperation on migration, saying he had asked his Turkish counterpart “not to let themselves be talked out of keeping migration at bay just because they see an EU member state being made to pay tens and hundreds of thousands of forints for protecting its borders”.

Szijjártó said he and his Turkish counterpart did not hold bilateral talks this time because they could “do so at any time” and will talk on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting next month.

The minister said Türkiye was “indispensable” when it came to responding to the challenges before the EU, whether it be energy security or migration.

On another subject, he said the deadly stabbing in Germany last weekend had demonstrated “just how dangerous and unreasonable the pressure Brussels is trying to put on Hungary is”.

“We don’t want a Solingen in Hungary, we don’t want stabbings in Hungary, we don’t want illegal migrants in Hungary, so it’s simply shocking and outrageous that while the number of crimes committed and the number of people killed by illegal migrants in Europe is rising, the European Union is punishing us because we protect ourselves and our border and don’t allow illegal immigrants into the country,” he said.

EU ‘idly watches’ Ukraine ‘playing with’ energy security?

Ukraine has threatened the energy security of Hungary and Slovakia by making Russian Lukoil‘s crude oil transit impossible and the European Commission has not taken any action, the foreign minister said on Thursday. Szijjártó told a press conference after a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels that his Ukrainian counterpart had also attended the consultations and talked much about the Russian attacks against his country’s energy grid.

“Hungary’s position is clear,” he said. “A country’s energy supply is a matter of national security. As a result, when a country threatens the security of another country’s energy supplies, then it also threatens that country’s national security interests.”

“And this is exactly what has happened in respect of Ukraine and Hungary. By making around a third of Hungarian oil imports from Russia practically impossible by legal means, Ukraine is undermining the security of Hungary’s energy supplies or at least subjects it to serious challenges,” he said.

He added that the same applied also in connection with Slovakia where Ukraine had blocked around 40-45 percent of Russian oil imports.

EU limiting energy security for Hungary and Slovakia?

“And I must say that the European Commission has shown its true colours, because either the European Union is so weak that it cannot protect two member states’ energy security against a non-member country, or it has created the whole situation itself and Kyiv had actually been instructed by Brussels to introduce measures that limit energy security for Hungary and Slovakia,” he said.

Whichever happens to be the case, “it is disappointing that the European Union is either so weak or it is trying to hide so boldly behind Kyiv to force Hungary and Slovakia to change their pro-peace position,” he said.

Szijjártó said that together with his Slovak counterpart they had expressed their disappointment in connection with the EC’s handling of the issue and noted that both countries were making considerable contributions to the security of Ukraine’s supplies.

“Some 42 percent of Ukraine’s electricity imports currently arrive in Ukraine through Hungary and Hungarian state companies have made significant investments in order to enable synchronised cooperation between European and Ukrainian systems,” he added.

“Without these measures, Ukraine’s electricity supplies would not be secured… And despite this we had to face Ukraine playing with the security of energy supplies for Hungary and for Slovakia,” he said.

Continual talks

Szijjártó said there were continual talks with Russian suppliers and the Ukrainian system operator about finding a legal solution to guarantee long term supplies.

“But let me tell you again, it should not be us having to deal with this task but either the Ukrainians should restore the original situation or the European Union should take action in this matter,” he added.

With the help of different types of temporary measures, supplies could be successfully secured in the short term and medium term, but in the case of energy only a long-term solution was acceptable, he said.

“As a result, we will certainly continue the talks and hope that agreements can be signed soon that will enable the long-term security of energy supplies,” he added.

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