Hungary and Slovakia vote against an EU Council resolution as FM Péter Szijjártó warns against radical energy reforms in Luxembourg.Continue reading
An important battle began yesterday in Brussels. Nothing less is at stake than whether we will succeed in protecting Hungarian households from the joint plan of Brussels bureaucrats and Zelenskyy, which would jeopardize Hungary’s oil and natural gas supplies and drive up Hungarian electricity bills, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
“What is this actually about? While oil and gas prices on world markets are skyrocketing due to the war in the Middle East, Brussels seems to want to exacerbate the problem.” The social media post states that the EU wants to ban Russian energy at any cost.
According to Viktor Orbán, it is not difficult to see what will happen if this occurs. Due to its misguided sanctions policy, Europe already has access to energy at a much higher price than its competitors. If Brussels permanently cuts off Russian resources, this means that the most important pipelines supplying Hungary with oil and gas will be cut off. This is incredibly dangerous in the midst of a war, he added.
“To do all this now, in the shadow of a war in the Middle East, is madness. Why are they doing this? Because the bureaucrats in Brussels do not care about the interests of the European people. The Brussels bureaucrats are afraid that the war will end. Then they will have to face up to what they have achieved with all the weapons and money they have sent to the war.
They are fighting for their political survival, and they do not care if their decisions cause Hungarian households’ electricity bills to skyrocket,”
the head of government wrote.
Orbán stressed: “We will not allow ourselves to be made to pay the price for Brussels’ latest nonsense! That is why yesterday, together with Slovakia, we blocked a decision that would have given the green light to the Commission’s proposals. Brussels and its allies are on the side of the Ukrainians, we are on the side of the Hungarians!” Orbán concluded.
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó stated in his response to the draft legislation presented by EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen:
This proposal is a serious violation of our sovereignty, as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union stipulates that Member States have full responsibility for energy policy and no one can tell us which energy sources to buy, how much, from whom, and when.”
He added: “They are cutting off the two largest gas routes and then talking about eliminating dependencies and improving energy security.”
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Orbán Viktor