PHOTOS: Hungary will become safer, new pipeline to be built
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó acknowledged Bulgaria’s efforts to enhance energy security and diversify supply at a ceremony to mark the start of construction of the Vertical Gas Corridor on Thursday.
New pipeline to connect Bulgaria with Hungary
“We believe that pipelines shouldn’t be shut down, but new ones built, and the capacity of existing ones increased, as Bulgaria is doing,” Szijjártó said in a statement issued by his ministry. He added that the situation in Central Europe with regard to energy supply had worsened since Ukraine ceased gas transit deliveries.
Szijjártó said the Vertical Gas Corridor would give Hungary a new delivery route for gas, via Romania, adding that an expansion of the interconnector capacity between the two countries’ gas networks was back on the agenda.
Szijjártó said Bulgaria was a reliable transit partner, delivering over 20 million cubic metres of gas a day to Hungary through the TurkStream pipeline.
Energy security in Central and Southeast Europe is a “vital matter” for the whole continent, he said, adding that Hungary had pressed the European Commission for financing for energy infrastructure in the region, “instead of drafting plans for how to ruin the security of the region’s energy supply”.
Hungarian-Bulgarian Joint Economic Committee holds meeting
The Hungarian-Bulgarian Joint Economic Committee held a meeting on Thursday in Sofia. Hungary attributes strategic importance to cooperation with Bulgaria, without which a secure energy supply for it would no longer be realistic, Szijjártó said after the meeting, according to a statement by his ministry.
Szijjártó noted that 7.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas arrived in Hungary via Bulgaria last year. He thanked Bulgaria for being a predictable and reliable transit country.
The minister said the two governments continue to agree that further investment in nuclear energy is key to maintaining competitiveness. He expressed his pleasure that Bulgaria is ready to use Hungarian technology in this area.
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