The Budapest-based conservative think tank Századvég has recently released their study titled ‘Europe Project 2025’. In it, they focus on energy policy, specifically on how the liberal leadership in Brussels has created an energy crisis on the Old Continent.
Their survey reveals that 22 per cent of Europeans report not being able to properly heat their homes during wintertime, while 26 per cent of them admit to having missed a utility bill payment at least in the past year due to indigence. Projected to the EU population, that amounts to 117 million people.
Hungary, however, remains the exception within the European Union.
Only 9 per cent of households are facing challenges with heating and 12 per cent are overdue on utility bills, making Hungary the nation with the lowest levels of energy poverty in the EU. These figures are attributed to the Orbán administration’s national utility cost reduction programme, which employs strict regulatory pricing to shield families from market fluctuations and inflation.
However, these safeguards are at risk. The European Commission is currently advocating for a new sanctions package that would prohibit all Russian energy imports into the EU. Should this plan be enacted, wholesale gas prices could potentially double, Századvég’s analysis warns, increasing from €35 to nearly €70 per MWh, and possibly even higher due to speculative market behaviour. Consequently, Hungary’s energy expenses could surge by up to 1.1 trillion HUF each year, making its existing price protection strategy financially unfeasible.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary has been warning about the possibility of the European energy crisis making its way to Hungary, in the case of Brussels’ proposal on the Russian energy embargo being enacted.
Hungary currently imports around 7.5 billion cubic meteres of Russian gas per year, which is the vast majority of the country’s annual natural gas consumption of 8.5 billion cubic metres, as per 2023.
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