Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on state radio that the European Union's plan to ban Russian energy imports must be prevented "by all means", Reuters reports, quoted by FOKUS.
"We must try to stop this desire of Ukraine to completely ban Russian gas imports to Europe. We must prevent this by all means. Because there is no point in having a pipeline if we are not allowed to transport gas through it," Orbán said.
Next month, the European Commission will propose legal measures to gradually end all imports of Russian gas and LNG into the EU by the end of 2027, the EU's executive body said earlier in May. Member states Slovakia and Hungary, which are dependent on Russian oil and gas supplies, have opposed the proposed ban.
Orbán said that if the EU compensates Hungary for the costs of the energy ban, the government would be "open to negotiations" on the issue. Slovakia and Hungary continue to receive Russian gas and oil and are at loggerheads with Ukraine over its decision to cut off gas supplies from the east through its territory from the end of 2024.
The EU has imposed sanctions on most Russian oil imports, but not on gas, over the objections of Slovakia and Hungary, which have closer ties to Moscow.
The Commission’s proposal requires only a qualified majority in the European Parliament, meaning Slovakia and Hungary will not be able to block it. But their objections could complicate the process.
Hungary imports most of its gas via the TurkStream pipeline, which runs along the Black Sea floor to Turkey and then on to southeastern Europe. In the first quarter of this year, volumes through the European section of the TurkStream pipeline increased by 16% year-on-year to around 4.5 billion cubic meters. m, which is due to higher demand in Hungary and Slovakia.