Hungarian economy minister criticises EU sanctions, but did not reveal the right solution

Europe is paying a “sanctions surcharge” on energy, so the Hungarian government is working to ease “those harmful effects”, the finance minister said after a meeting of his European Union counterparts in Luxembourg on Tuesday.

“A policy of sanctions is pointless unless it hurts the aggressor more [than the initiator] and helps to put an end to the war,” the finance ministry quoted Mihaly Varga as saying. On that basis, “current sanctions can be declared a failure”, it added.

European sanctions against Russia have resulted in a prolonged war and record-high revenues for Russia rather than meeting their original goal, Varga said. The Hungarian government does not support further sanctions that would jeopardise Hungary’s energy supplies and would do more damage to the European economy than to Russia, he said. Moreover, it rejects any further sanctions that would remove Hungary’s exemption from a ban on Russian oil imports, the minister said.

As we wrote yesterday, another favour from Moscow, Hungary gets payment extension with Gazprom.