Orbán cabinet imposes new condition in exchange for Russia sanctions – UPDATE with votes

Hungary’s vote at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels will depend on whether the European Commission gives guarantees to take steps if the community’s energy security faces threats from outside the bloc, the Hungarian foreign minister said on Monday morning, ahead of the event.

It has become clear that the sanctions that the EU introduced against Russia in connection with the war in Ukraine “have failed badly”, Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook. “Those measures have caused great damage to the economy of Europe, Hungary included. They have cost our country’s economy 19 billion euros,” he said, adding that Ukraine, at the same time, has continued to take steps that pose a risk to the energy security of Hungary and of central Europe. “This just cannot go on like this,” Szijjarto said, calling on the EC to represent the interests of EU member states rather than those of EU candidate Ukraine.

EU foreign ministers are scheduled to decide whether to extend the existing sanctions against Russia at their meeting on Monday.

As we wrote on Saturday, “If PM Viktor Orbán really blocks European sanctions at a key moment for the war, it’ll be absolutely clear that in this big game for the security and future of Europe, he is playing in Putin’s team, not in ours. With all the consequences of this fact”, the Polish prime minister said, details and update HERE.

We also reported earlier that a Hungarian boy hacked an email linked to the bomb threats, uncovering a Russian tie.

Hungary gets energy security guarantees

Hungary has received the energy security guarantees it asked for; the European Commission has pledged to protect gas and crude pipelines, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Brussels on Monday in a statement issued by his ministry.

During a break at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, Szijjártó said the integrity of infrastructure supplying energy to member states was a matter that affected the security of the entire EU. He added that the EC would ask Ukraine for assurances on maintaining crude deliveries bound for the EU. Szijjártó said details on the matter would be announced soon.

This also means that, despite the Hungarian government’s threat of a veto, the EU sanctions against Russia were finally voted through at the EU Council’s Permanent Representatives (Coreper) meeting, according to a resolution posted on the European Council’s website. If the government had exercised its veto, which Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had also envisaged in a radio interview last Friday, all sanctions would have been lost, as they have to be renewed every six months and the next deadline would have expired.

UPDATE

As we wrote last week, Polish PM Tusk said, Orbán is in Putin’s team if blocks sanctions. FM Szijjártó replied: Tusk is a Soros-agent

Also interesting, the Orbán cabinet recommends a Russian-developed code generator for Hungarian citizens’ data protection, read here all details