Von der Leyen and Zelensky plan to cut off Russian energy, says FM Szijjártó
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are preparing to cut off natural gas, crude oil and nuclear fuel supplies from Russia by end-2027, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in an interview published on Saturday, adding that Hungarians would suffer gravely as a result.
Szijjártó talks about energy issues
All families in Hungary would end up paying 2-3 times more for their household energy, he told media outlet mandiner.hu, adding the government would resist “this unacceptable plan”.
Szijjártó noted that he will represent the government at Monday’s meeting of EU energy ministers, insisting that “this is not an energy issue but a political issue”.
Oil and gas purchases are determined by the pipeline’s location, and the legacy of energy infrastructure in central Europe determines that purchases must be from Russia, he added.
He said currently it would be physically impossible to ensure Hungary’s gas and oil needs without Russian energy shipments, while alternatives would cost the country much more owing to longer transit routes and higher fees.
This, he said, was a matter of sovereignty as the energy mix is a national competence, adding that the EU wanted to deprive Hungary of a big slice of its sovereignty.
Referring to EU rule-of-law procedures against Hungary, Szijjártó said each Hungarian law was put under the microscope “to see what [issues] they can tie it to it”.
The minister noted that Hungary and Slovakia have been granted an open-ended exemption from Russian oil sanctions based on a unanimous decision. Now, however, a trade policy decision requiring a simple majority may squash this arrangement.
So the champions of democracy and the rule of law are now proposing a draft law that “cuts European rules to the waist on purely political and ideological grounds”, he said.
Hungary, he said, had no business in the war in Ukraine, so there was no reason to “ruin ourselves” because of it.
Without Russian oil and gas, Hungary would be vulnerable to other suppliers demanding “a dramatic price increase”, he said, insisting that the Druzhba pipeline from Russia to Hungary and Slovakia was reliable, while pipelines coming from the Adriatic Sea had insufficient capacity to serve both Hungary and Slovakia. So Hungary “can count on Slovakia in this fight”, he added.
In addition, Croatia has raised Adriatic transit fees several times in recent years, “in the name of European and good-neighborly solidarity”, he said, insisting that the commission had “cheered them on”.
EU moves, he said, were “unfair” and directed at generating huge profits for certain energy shippers at the expense of Hungary and Hungarian households. Profits made by large companies would be used in Ukraine. “That’s where President Zelensky comes in,” he added.
Asked whether the government’s position was purely tied to Russian interests, he denied this was the case, adding that the 8.5 billion cubic meter pipeline transporting Russian gas from Turkey operated at full capacity. “There is no cheaper, more reliable source of natural gas today,” he said.
“Why do you call buying the cheapest source of natural gas for the Hungarian people pro-Russian?” he said.
Asked whether Hungary would prevail on this issue, Szijjártó said the government would “fight”, adding that Zelensky was “pushing” the EU towards causing itself and member states maximum self-harm through sanctions, prolonging the war, and decisions related to energy transport businesses. “But we’ll fight to our last breath; this cannot be allowed to happen,” Szijjártó declared.
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