Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said politically motivated energy sanctions are killing Europe’s competitiveness and have a serious impact on living standards as well, so it is necessary to involve new resources and transport routes as soon as possible.
Speaking at the European Gas Conference in Bucharest, the foreign minister said Europe was facing a major energy crisis today because the liberal mainstream was approaching issues of an exclusively physical nature from an ideological perspective.
He said it was important to involve new resources and create new transport routes, and spoke out against energy sanctions and restrictions, arguing that the discrimination of certain suppliers for political reasons had a serious impact on Europe’s competitiveness and standards of living.
Minister Szijjártó then touched on criticisms regarding the purchase of Russian natural gas and argued that in such a strategic sector, it is only worth changing the procurement direction if there is a better – more affordable and more reliable – offer.
“That is why we will not give up on energy cooperation with Russia. And that is why we are protecting the TurkStream pipeline, which is currently the most important guarantee for the security of our supply, in every way,” he added.
Minister Szijjártó said Hungary was ready to buy liquefied natural gas from Qatar from 2027, and deliveries of Turkish and Azeri gas to Hungary started last year.
He pointed out that the capacity expansion of the energy network would be necessary in Southeastern Europe for the sake of effective diversification and the countries of the region have turned to the European Commission for financing the development, but they have been turned down by the Commission.
Finally, the minister also touched on the extraction of the new Romanian gas field, which, he said, filled Hungary with great hopes.
However, he added that two commercial contracts had been signed under which the first deliveries should have arrived in 2024, but for certain reasons, the US company in question withdrew.
“We hope that the Neptun Deep project will be successful this time. We hope that we can reach commercial agreements and we can add the new Romanian resources to Hungary’s national energy mix,” Minister Szijjártó concluded.
