Minister: ‘Hungarian govt doesn’t support EU proposals threatening energy supply safety’

The Hungarian government supports any proposals by the European Union that would result in decreasing energy prices but does not support proposals that will work against the security of supplies, the prime minister’s chief of staff told public Kossuth radio on Sunday morning.

Assessing the results of the recent EU summit, Gergely Gulyás said it would have been disadvantegous for Hungary if Brussels had introduced sanctions and an embargo on natural gas imports or had adopted a gas price scheme that would threaten long-term gas purchase contracts. “For Hungary, that would mean that the Russians would terminate the gas contract concluded earlier and that would put our gas supplies at risk.”

He said that proposals put forward by the European Commission were aimed at extending sanctions on natural gas which would for Hungary “most obviously and certainly result in a shortage of supplies for Hungarian families and businesses”, said Gulyás. “We have managed to prevent this, the EU will not introduce regulations in connection with long-term contracts on gas,” said Gulyás, adding that in Hungary’s view “the EU summit’s decisions rest on a rational basis” and “we could defend what was important and have a share from what is advantageous”.

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Europe, he said, cannot supply itself with gas and therefore is not in a position to dictate prices. In terms of electricity, the continent is self-sufficient, but for the time being the gas market also determines the prices in the electricity market, said Gulyás, proposing the use of cheaper renewable energy. “This will not resolve all of our problems but could ease them and it could somewhat bring down the price of electricity,” Gulyás said.