Hungary will not allow Brussels to use legal manoeuvres to deprive the country of affordable energy and will initiate court proceedings against the REPowerEU regulation, requesting its annulment by the Court of Justice of the European Union, the minister for European Union affairs wrote on Facebook on Monday.
In his post, János Bóka said Brussels had ‘opened a new front in the energy war’ and was seeking to cut Hungary off from cheap Russian crude oil and natural gas. He warned that Hungarian families would bear the cost of such a move. ‘If this plan is implemented, household utility bills could multiply, and economic actors would also face serious difficulties,’ the minister added. Bóka argued that the regulation was adopted by circumventing EU rules, as it effectively constitutes a sanction, which would have required a unanimous decision by member states.
‘This is a serious abuse of law’
‘Brussels, however, pushed the decision through by qualified majority, disguising it as a trade measure in order to bypass the resistance of sovereign nation states. This is a serious abuse of law,’ he wrote. According to the minister, the decision violates the interests of Hungary and the Hungarian people. He also claimed that the Tisza Party would follow the same path, noting that its experts have clearly taken a stance in favour of Brussels’s energy policy.
‘We, by contrast, are protecting Hungary’s energy security and defending utility cost reductions. That is why Fidesz is the safe choice,’ Bóka concluded.
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó also talked about the issue on X. He added that Hungary’s case is based on three arguments. Firstly, energy imports can only be banned with sanctions, and sanctions require unanimity; they cannot be passed under a trade policy measure. Secondly, EU Treaties state that each member state should decide its own energy choices and supplies, and thirdly, the principle of energy solidarity requires the security of energy supply for all member states.
Slovakia is also planning to sue the bloc, Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár announced without specifying a date.
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