Compliance with the recent promises of the European Commission (EC) will have a major impact on Hungary’s decision -making at the next vote on the extension of EU sanctions against Russia. On Friday, this was declared in Madrid by the head of Hungarian diplomacy Péter Szijjártó, TASR reports according to MTI.
“It is time to put an end to a provoy policy in Europe, sanctions that have caused extraordinary losses to the European economy,” The Hungarian Minister said after a meeting with the leader of the Spanish far -right Vox Vox Santiag Abascal. Szijjártó criticized sanctions that the EU has introduced in recent years. In his words, they destroyed the continent’s competitiveness and a model of economic growth based on cooperation with Russia, “which was not replaced”.
“Hungary does not hide their attitude to sanctions, and the last three years have clearly shown that we are right about sanctions,” he claims. According to him, the Union sanctions caused serious damage not only to Hungary, but also to the whole European economy. “It would be better to get rid of them as soon as possible,” stated.
Szijjártó also specified that Budapest received from the EC that Ukraine could not jeopardize the energy security of Hungary or Central Europe. “So if the European Commission fails to meet its promise, if it is unable to convince Ukraine not to take measures that will harm Hungary’s energy security, he will be able to be able to do so,” declared.
Last autumn, the EU Council extended individual sanctions against a group of Russian natural and legal persons. The vote on their extension should be in March. The EU Member States agreed on Monday to extend the validity of the package against Russia for his war in Ukraine. Their validity was to expire on January 31. Hungary finally agreed to extend it after months of delays. The extended penalty package includes a ban on trading in all sectors, as well as measures to block the assets of the Russian central bank.
Hungary, with an extension last week at the level of a permanent representative, disagreed. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also suggested that Budapest will venture extension of sanctions if Ukraine does not renew the transit of Russian natural gas through its territory. Slovakia lobbied for the same. In the end, however, it retreated from its requirements and gained EU officials in exchange A non -binding statement of the importance of Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Sanctions must be prolonged every six months, but this requires a unanimous vote of 27 EU Member States.
