Jobbik: Gas pipeline avoiding Ukraine must for Hungary

Budapest, December 4 (MTI) – Hungary’s gas supplies should be balanced and multi-faceted, which requires a pipeline that circumvents Ukraine, the radical nationalist Jobbik party said.

Bulgaria has refused to start work on the South Stream pipeline on pressure from the EU and the US, Lajos Kepli, the party’s lawmaker, told a press conference on Thursday. He said, however, that Russia had not given up on the idea of exporting gas to Europe, for instance there are plans to take one leg of the network towards Turkey to the Greek border, he said.

It would be reasonable to build Serbian and Hungarian sections as planned, and gas could travel from the hub through Macedonia, he said.

“Without Russian gas Central Europe is in trouble,” Kepli insisted.

He called the idea that missing supplies could be supplemented by liquefied gas from the US a “fantasy”, as this would be more expensive and its source is uncertain.