Despite the EU’s efforts to become independent from Russian gas, the member country Hungary again negotiated special conditions with Russia’s state-owned company Gazprom. Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday after a meeting with his EU colleagues in Prague that an agreement had been reached with Gazprom for the months of September and October. The additional volume of gas supplied by Gazprom from September 1 will be “5.8 million cubic meters” per daySzijjarto said in a video on his Facebook page.
According to Hungarian sources, Gazprom had already started supplying the country with more gas than “already contractually agreed” in August.
A gas emergency plan has been in force in the EU for several weeks to deal with the energy crisis triggered by the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. This is not a gas embargo, but the ordinance provides for voluntary natural gas savings of 15 percent per country in winter.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban condemned the attack on Ukraine, but he regularly sharply criticized the EU’s sanctions policy. He had blocked the EU oil embargo for weeks and then negotiated an exception for his country. The country also rejected the gas emergency plan and called for an exception.