European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is traveling to Hungary in the context of complicated negotiations on an oil embargo against Russia.
Von der Leyen will leave on Monday afternoon to meet with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, his spokesman said on Twitter. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had previously announced that he would block a decision on the planned import ban. Negotiations on the next EU sanctions package have stalled for days as Hungary and other countries are demanding extensive exemptions from the planned oil embargo.
european energy security
The topic of talks in Hungary is the security of European energy supply, wrote the spokesman for the President of the Commission. Last week, the EU Commission proposed giving Hungary and Slovakia until the end of 2024 and the Czech Republic until mid-2024 to fully implement the oil import ban. All other countries must stop oil shipments within six months and purchases of derivatives, such as diesel and kerosene, within eight months. However, the compromise did not go far enough for Hungary in particular.
“This proposal from Brussels amounts to a nuclear bomb dropped on the Hungarian economy,” Szijjarto said on Monday. The sanctions package spells “only problems” for Hungary and provides no solution on how the country, which depends on Russian oil, can replace missing imports. Slovakia and Bulgaria, which are seeking their own exemption, have also expressed concerns, among others. For the sanctions package to be implemented, all countries must agree.
Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are heavily dependent on Russian oil, which is supplied through the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline. According to the national statistics authority, the Czech Republic covered about half of its oil consumption from Russian sources in 2021. In Hungary, according to the government, 65% comes from Russia. According to the national operating company Transpetrol, Russia is the only source of oil for Slovakia. According to the EU Commission, deliveries to these countries represent only a very small proportion of the EU’s total Russian oil imports.