Budapest — A proposed European price cap on Russian gas goes against European and Hungarian interests, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday, ahead of an emergency meeting of European Union energy ministers.
Szijjarto, who met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow in July, seeking 700 million cubic metres of gas on top of an existing long-term supply deal, said the proposed price cap would trigger an immediate cut-off in supplies to Europe.
“The plan that would impose a price cap exclusively on Russian gas coming via pipelines is entirely against European and Hungarian interests,” Szijjarto said in a Facebook video.
The Czech Republic, which is helping guide discussions as holders of the EU’s rotating presidency, has said it wanted to remove capping Russian gas prices from the agenda of the meeting.
“This morning … we will do our utmost to make Brussels finally understand that gas supplies are not an ideological or political issue, but one of hardcore physical reality,” Szijjarto said.
Under a deal signed last year, before the start of the war in neighbouring Ukraine, Hungary receives 3.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year via Bulgaria and Serbia under a long-term deal with Russia and a further 1 bcm via a pipeline from Austria. The agreement with Gazprom is for 15 years.
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