Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto criticized the European Union’s decision to set an oil price cap for crude oil and petroleum products which originate in or are exported from Russia, at 60 dollars per barrel, saying that it is time for Brussels to realize that these measure hurt EU’s economy the most.
Minister Szijjarto said that, during the negotiations on the price cap, Hungarian delegation fought for Hungarian interest and has succeeded to secure the country’s exemption from the price cap, thus defending the security of Hungarian energy supply.
He said that the reason why the Government was fighting to achieve an exemption for Hungary from the EU oil price cap is not ideological or political, but physical. At the moment, if crude oil from Russia is cut out of the Hungarian energy supply, the country’s oil supply would become physically impossible.
For a country to be able to buy oil, it needs a pipeline big enough to buy enough oil to run the country. Historically, in central Europe, this infrastructure has developed in such a way that today it is only physically possible to supply Hungary with oil if we can buy oil from Russia, Minister Szijjarto explained.
