Hungary opposes sanctions against Russia
„Accepting the sixth package of UE sanctions against Russia would be a historical failure ” – warned the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban in his letter to the head of the European Commission Ursula von den Leyen. Extracts of this letter have been published by “Financial Times”.
Head of the Hungarian government has already announced twice before that his country “will not give way under the pressure “ and will not support sanctions against Russia, which would mean resignation from the purchase of Russian gas and oil.
Neither Hungary nor the EU as a whole is ready to adopt and implement the measures as proposed by the EC. Sanctions should be adopted at a time when all necessary preconditions are met in all member states – the media quote Viktor Orban’s letter, in which he states among others that the sixth package of sanctions goes far beyond the UE consensus.
“The European Commission cannot create a situation, in which the sanctions would bring greater harm to Hungary than Russia” – underlined the head of the Hungarian government. He also paid attention to the fact that adopting the sanction by the European Commission would require from one country “ serious upgrade in alternative supply infrastructure and a complete rearrangement of refinery capacities. . These efforts take time and necessitate investment that is redundant and therefore cannot be financed on a market basis. The prime minister of Hungary also underlined that the prices of energy have already reached the highest value for 40 years and the sanctions would lead to their further rise increasing at the same time the burden for the poorest ones.
Reuters quoted , referring to EU source, that Hungary and Slovakia will be able to import Russian oil until the end of 2023 based on current contracts. It is to be proposed by the European Commission in order to avoid these two countries’ veto against sanctions – Hungary will not support UE sanctions against Russia, which would make it impossible to import Russian oil and gas – declared Hungarian minister of foreign affairs Peter Szijjarto on Tuesday. (info:euroactiv.pl, photo:theweek)
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