Hungarian Conservative

According to the ministry’s statement, Foreign Minister Szijjártó minister reported on the progress of the Paks project during a hearing of the Sustainable Development Committee of the National Assembly, welcoming the fact that the visible phase of the project is now underway.

Viktor Orbán declared that Hungary’s energy supply is a key issue and noted that it is important for Hungary to be able to receive oil not only from Russia but also from Kazakhstan. He added that the volume of this is not significant yet, but the channels have been opened, and this is a significant step for the country’s security.

Gazprom is making efforts to compensate for the losses in the European markets, which occurred following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, partly due to the explosions in the Baltic Sea pipelines of the Nord Stream project.

US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman was quick to condemn PM Viktor Orbán’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on the social media platform X., suggesting the Hungarian prime minister was ‘pleading for business deals’. In response, Balázs Orbán pointed out that the US has in fact doubled its import of enriched uranium from Russia since the start of the war.

The National Assembly of Bulgaria passed a new, €10.2 per megawatt-hour tax on Russian gas coming through the TurkStream pipeline. President Aleksandar Vučić of Serbia and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó of Hungary have condemned the decision.

Despite the sanctions and the war driving up energy prices, the Hungarian measures to combat inflation and price increases are undeniably working. While EU countries scramble to look for new avenues to import electricity and gas, the Hungarian plans and contracts have managed to keep energy prices at affordable levels for citizens.

Hungary and Slovakia recently signed a cooperation agreement on nuclear energy with the goal of coordinating research between the two countries and making joint efforts to apply the latest technologies.

The Foreign Minister stressed the importance of Azeri-Hungarian cooperation, which he claims has greatly helped Hungary in energy security in the past decade, and called on Brussels to ‘do more than nudging’ to help member states diversify their energy sources.

‘Since the European Union currently refuses to contribute to the financing, Brussels has lost any right to intervene in where Central European countries, including Hungary, source their natural gas from,’ Péter Szijjártó stated.

From the inception of post-Soviet Hungary, East Asian relations have been oriented towards trade as well as knowledge and information exchange. With the opening up of the Hungarian economy, foreign direct investment (FDI) began to flow in from Taiwan, China, and India, and was widely distributed over a diverse range of sectors including finance, retail, mining, and those that this article focuses on: automotive manufacturing and logistics.

The national solar energy map project aims to promote the use of solar energy and to provide information about the solar energy potential of the residences of those who are considering investing in installing solar panels.

The government does not intend to hinder Sweden’s NATO membership, the Hungarian foreign minister stressed, noting that he has been in continuous consultation with Turkish leaders regarding both the Swedish and earlier, the Finnish NATO accession. Regarding the Ukrainian conflict, Szijjártó stated that as a neighbouring country, Hungary is in a unique position due to the large Hungarian community living in Transcarpathia.

The energy cooperation between the two countries will gain a new dimension as gas supplies will soon also originate directly from Turkey, following the finalisation of an agreement between MVM and Botas for the purchase of 275 million cubic metres of gas next year.

‘Hungary’s support for Georgia makes sense in a number of ways. With both nations having brutal histories of Russian domination, Hungary understands the struggles Georgia has had in coming out of Moscow’s shadow after so many years behind the Iron Curtain. While Hungary offers support to a fellow former communist satellite state to realise a future better than its past, Georgia offers Hungary and Europe the resources needed to maintain that future.’

The ministry emphasised that combined cycle gas turbine power plants can be built relatively quickly, have exceptionally high efficiency, low specific carbon dioxide emissions, and their capacity can be adjusted to consumption levels.

It is important to remember that, compared to the stable period of 2017–2018, some 80 per cent of the rise in inflation in Hungary could be attributed to external circumstances, and only 20 per cent to strictly domestic reasons. Taking into account the ambivalent effects of the war situation and the ensuing sanctions, these rates are likely to remain important determinants of inflation developments in 2023.

In a press statement released following his meeting with President Serdar Berdymukhammedov, Viktor Orbán said ‘we need energy to come to Europe from Central Asia,’ and for this, new sources, new routes, and new infrastructure are needed. Turkmenistan can be a ‘great partner’ for Europe and Hungary in this regard, the PM stated.

During his joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, Péter Szijjártó said the cooperation between the two countries has always been characterized by mutual respect. Hungary has always supported the right of the Jewish state to self-defence and to guaranteeing its security, the minister nailed down.

James Woudhuysen, the author of the study and a guest professor at London South Bank University, stated that the EU energy policy and decision-making are more ‘performative’ than effective, and the related decisions have not improved but rather worsened the energy situation in the EU.

‘Hungary has submitted the draft contract modifications to the European Commission, and we received the green light from them yesterday,’ Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced.

The minister reported at a press conference following the meeting of the Hungarian-Serbian Economic Joint Committee that the contract for the planned oil pipeline, to be established in cooperation between Mol and Transnafta, will be signed at the 20 June government summit.

The minister held talks with ministers and was part of an energy conference panel discussion, where he emphasised the importance of renewable energy, electric vehicles and nuclear power.

Europe and Hungary were fortunate to have a mild winter, but ‘a country’s leadership cannot make an unequivocal bet that this will always be repeated,’ Energy Minister Lantos warned. Therefore, the government has decided to raise the level of the security gas reserve. Previously, the country stored 10 per cent of its annual consumption as a security reserve, which was now raised to nearly 2 billion cubic metres, or 20 per cent of consumption, while consumption itself decreased.

According to the law sponsored by the justice minister, an extended state of emergency is needed to handle the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the war in Ukraine and to tackle the economic consequences of the armed conflict. The bill was designed to ‘ensure all means to assist and accommodate refugees, fence off the negative economic impacts.. and help the country leave behind the effects of the war as soon as possible,’ the draft legislation’s preamble said.

‘Hungarian-Serbian strategic energy cooperation is one of the guarantees that Hungary’s supply will remain secure in the next period,’ the minister said.

Fidesz MEP András Gyürk emphasised that creating modern energy storage facilities is a costly endeavour, so he called upon the European Commission to ‘provide immediate access to each member state to the funds they are entitled to.’

While last September, only 40 per cent were satisfied with the transformed utility cost reduction scheme, by March this year the same number rose to 49 per cent. Additionally, the percentage of those dissatisfied dropped from 52 to 44 per cent, the data shows.

Budapest energy prices were the lowest among capitals that are part of the European Union. As far as Europe is concerned, prices were the lowest in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The foreign minister emphasised right after winter, ‘in Europe, it is fashionable to strut about with great bravado these days,’ but the International Energy Agency recently issued an ‘ominous’ report indicating that the most severe difficulties are expected to come in the next heating season when supply security will be critical.

The Finnish energy consultancy company VaasaETT recently issued a report that shows Hungarian utility costs to be the lowest in the entire EU.