Hungary and Slovakia block Energy Council resolution on banning Russian fuel imports

EU member states, still reliant on Russian gas, oil, and nuclear fuel, have scrambled to prevent Brussels from banning energy imports, fueling Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine.

The push against the plan to reject Russian supplies comes amid an escalating clash between Iran and Israel that is set to raise energy prices. Its opponents say the move will exacerbate costs for European consumers even more.

Hungary and Slovakia slow down move to cut Russian energy imports

European Union ministers responsible for energy met on Monday to discuss the European Commission’s initiative to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports in response to Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, seen as a threat to Europe’s own security.

Hungary and Slovakia vetoed a resolution of the EU’s Energy Council that would have urged the EU’s executive body to move forward with its plan in June, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced after the meeting in Luxembourg.

Speaking to the media, Szijjártó said the EU is committed to a plan agreed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her Ukrainian colleague, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, aimed at “cutting off cheap sources of natural gas and oil, thereby raising overhead costs to the sky, especially in Central Europe.”

During the press conference streamed on Facebook, the official insisted that Brussels wants to make Russian energy imports impossible, pushing his country into dependence from nations like Croatia and increasing utility expenditures of Hungarian families.

“Which is why the Hungarian and Slovak governments vetoed the decision to urge the process to move forward,” Hungary’s first diplomat explained, quoted by the MTI news agency. He admitted, however, that more efforts will be needed to cancel the initiative altogether.

“The struggle continues,” remarked the minister, claiming, as per a Tass report, that the plan will “harm the economy of the entire European Union” and is “absolutely unacceptable in the environment of the military conflict between Israel and Iran,” which threatens global energy security.

https://twitter.com/FM_Szijjarto/status/1934591291196678268

Budapest to cut off electricity supplies to Ukraine if deprived of Russian energy

Hungary may cut off electricity supplies to Ukraine if the European Commission eventually bans imports of Russian oil, gas, and nuclear fuel, Péter Szijjártó also warned. His country currently accounts for about 40-42% of the energy imported by Ukraine.

During the briefing, which was also aired by the Hungarian M1 TV channel, Szijjártó said:

“Hungary plays a key role in Ukraine’s electricity supply. But if Hungary’s power supply is under threat, if it becomes unstable, this may seriously affect our supplies to Ukraine.”

While Slovakia is standing shoulder to shoulder with Hungary, stating it “fundamentally disagrees” with the European Commission’s plan, another landlocked EU nation dependent on Russian energy is taking a less confrontational but, nevertheless, rather similar approach to the matter.

Austria is wary of the “impact on prices,” the country’s energy secretary Elisabeth Zehetner said in Luxembourg, quoted by Euractiv. “It is obvious that once the war is over, this must of course be taken into account,” she insisted, indicating Vienna may back the resumption of Russian energy imports after the conflict.

The Austrian government stopped buying Russian gas months ago, while Hungary and Slovakia continue to import fuel from Russia’s state-controlled giant Gazprom, while EU purchases of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) have actually increased since Moscow’s attack on Ukraine in 2022.

Brussels prepares to offer concessions to Budapest and Bratislava

On Tuesday, the executive power in Brussels is expected to propose to the European Parliament measures to terminate short-term contracts for Russian gas in 2026 and gradually phase out long-term contracts by January 2028.

According to a draft seen by the Financial Times, the Commission intends to ban companies from signing new contracts based on trade law in order to bypass a potential veto from Hungary and Slovakia.

The latter two, and other landlocked countries, will be offered an exemption to exit their existing short-term gas contracts with Russia until 2027.

Meanwhile, an EU plan to impose tariffs on imports of Russian nuclear fuel has been suspended for now as several European countries, such as Finland and Bulgaria, are yet to secure alternatives to the enriched uranium supplied by Russia’s state-owned monopoly Rosatom.

“Nuclear is complicated because we need to be very sure that we are not putting countries in situations where they do not have the security of supply,” Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen was quoted as stating. He added that EU officials are “working as fast as we can to also make that a part of the proposal.”

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