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Hungary will challenge the European Commission’s plans to decouple from Russian gas by the end of 2027 at the European Court of Justice, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Brussels.
Talking to journalists at the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting, Szijjarto said the plan endangers Hungary’s energy security and could lead to a drastic price hike.
Hungary is one of the few EU members to import a large quantity of Russian pipeline oil and gas. Last month, Hungary secured an exemption from US sanctions hitting Russian oil industries.
“The acceptance and implementation of this Brussels diktat is impossible for Hungary,” Szijjarto said. “This Brussels diktat undermines Hungary’s energy security, because without Russian energy it is physically impossible to supply Hungary safely with oil and natural gas.”
The EU institutions struck a political agreement overnight about the so-called RepowerEU plan. The directive will be binding for member states, and Hungary will not be able to veto it.
Szijjarto described the legal framework to approve the law with a qualified majority instead of unanimity as equivalent to fraud.
“As soon as this diktat is voted on in its final form in Brussels, we will immediately challenge it in the European Court of Justice,” the minister said, claiming his government has already begun the necessary legal work.
Most of Hungary’s fossil fuels are imported from Russia through the Druzhba and South Stream pipelines.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU has made several efforts to phase out Russian fuels. Hungary, together with Slovakia, received an exception in 2022 from the EU’s sanctions on Russian oil imports.
According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Slovakia is also considering legal action against the RepowerEU plans.
