Hungary strongly opposes EU's Russian energy ban

The Hungarian government intends to prevent a complete ban on Russian energy supplies to Europe, as desired by the European Commission, according to RT. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced this in a video address after an emergency cabinet meeting on energy issues.

“Due to the energy threat from Ukraine, I had to convene an emergency economic meeting. Brussels is determined to help Ukraine at the cost of destroying Hungarian and European families. Brussels intends to cut off gas and oil supplies from Russia,” TASS news agency quoted Prime Minister Orban as saying.

Mr Orban explained that such a decision would mean that Hungary would incur additional costs of 800 billion forints (about 2 billion euros), which corresponds to the amount the government spends annually from the state budget to reduce utility bills and subsidize housing and community services for Hungarian families.

Prime Minister Orban made this statement in the context of the European Commission's plan to completely abandon Russian gas by 2027, tighten regulations on uranium imports and take new measures against Russia's so-called oil-transporting submarine fleet to circumvent sanctions.

According to Mr Orban, if these intentions come to fruition, Hungarians' electricity bills will double and their gas heating bills will quadruple. The Hungarian government will also have to end a state subsidy program aimed at reducing utility costs.

"This can only be prevented if the government does not allow the European Union to make decisions in Brussels," Prime Minister Orban stressed.

Experts say that due to the rejection of these energy sources, the eurozone is currently experiencing economic stagnation. In 2024, European GDP growth is estimated to be no more than 0.9%. According to forecasts by the European Central Bank, a similar figure is expected by the end of 2025. The decline in output in Europe in 2023-2024 is about 6%. In this context, the competitiveness and profitability of businesses in many European countries are declining, and businesses are choosing to move production abroad.

Analysts believe that plans to completely reject Russian energy sources will aggravate the already difficult situation of the European economy.

“If the European Union pursues the goal of completely destroying what is left of its industry and continuing to reduce the living standards of its citizens, then of course it can refuse Russian energy resources. In the current reality of the EU, such an option cannot be ruled out, because the European elite has moved in the direction of confrontation with Russia,” Yevgeny Semibratov, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at RUDN, said in an interview with RT.

Such Brussels' energy policy would have a particularly serious impact on Hungary, according to Nikolai Mezhevich, chief researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“By abandoning Russian energy supplies, the EU will be able to expand purchases from US suppliers. But this will cost significantly more. As a result, everything from electricity in hospitals to bread will become more expensive. The EU’s economic situation threatens to become catastrophic. At the same time, the rejection of Russian energy supplies will affect EU countries in different ways. This will directly affect Hungary and Slovakia and will pose a threat to their national security. This is exactly why Hungary, an EU country, is pursuing such a tough policy in this case,” Mezhevich explained.