Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto Calls EU Gas Plan “Useless” and “Unenforceable”
Jose Nino
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Earlier this week, Hungary rejected the EU’s move to reduce gas consumption in light of Russia’s decision to significantly cut gas exports to EU members.
“This is an unjustifiable, useless, unenforceable, and harmful proposal,” Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on July 26, 2022.
Szijjarto’s comments came following the EU’s energy ministers vote to approve this plan in Brussels.
Hungary was the sole opponent of this gas reduction plan.
This plan calls on EU members to voluntarily reduce gas consumption by 15% based on a five-year average, from the period of August to March.
The EU is currently dealing with an energy crisis that is the result of Russia deciding to slash the flow of gas supplies to the supranational bloc.
Russia took such harsh geoeconomic maneuvers against the EU since it decided to join the US in sanctioning Russia over its military incursion in Ukraine.
PressTV reported that this crisis reached new levels on July 29, after Russian energy titan Gazprom announced it would slash additional flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to a fifth of capacity.
Gazprom claimed that it cut flows because the turbine needed to keep Nord Stream 1 running was sent to Canada for repairs. Now, it cannot be returned owing to sanctions.
Szijjarto continued sounding off against the EU’s gas plans, “We were the only ones to signal that we are voting no… given that this decree completely ignores the interests of Hungarian people.”
65% of Hungary’s oil imports and 80% of its gas imports come from Russia.
“Will someone in Brussels be explaining to Hungarians how Hungarian people or companies won’t be able to use gas while there is gas in Hungary, the whole thing is clearly nonsense,” Szijjarto said in a concluding statement.
Europe is stuck in a pickle of its own making. One one hand, it has very little energy sovereignty thanks to its misguided energy policies that have made it dependent on unreliable energy sources such as wind and solar. In turn, this has made the region dangerously dependent on Russian oil and gas when it desperately needs reliable energy once it becomes clear that the “green” energy won’t do the trick.
An economic sanctions war against Russia is just doubly dangerous.
Instead of acting as an independent pole, Europe has voluntarily offered itself up as a satrapy of the US and has signed off on its universalist plots to bring Russia to heel. So far, this approach has proven to be disastrous as Russia makes gradual progress in Ukraine and the EU’s working class finds itself in an economically precarious situation.
If the EU had a serious ruling class, it would stop this sanctions war and use its rich history of diplomatic prowess to find a constructive solution to this crisis.
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