Serbia can rely on Hungary to secure energy supplies, and the oil company MOL will increase the transportation of oil and oil products to Serbia by 2.5 times in December, which will help the neighboring country in a crisis situation. According to the MTI agency, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó announced this on Wednesday in Belgrade after a meeting with the Serbian Minister of Energy Dubravka Dedovičová, informs the TASR correspondent in Budapest.
In short:
- Serbia can count on Hungary to ensure energy supplies
- MOL will increase supplies of oil and products to Serbia
- The threat of US sanctions affects the Serbian oil industry
- The EU has faced criticism for its approach to current crises
“In November, MOL doubled its deliveries to Serbia. In December, it will increase them even more, so in the last month of the year, MOL will increase its deliveries of oil and oil products by 2.5 times,” announced Szijjártó.
Oil supply problems
In this context, he pointed out that the fire in the Százhalombatta company’s refinery in October does not affect the relevant plans.
If US sanctions against Russian oil companies take effect, critical days will come for Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučič stated this at an extraordinary press conference on Tuesday. According to him, there is a threat of an increase in fuel prices, and he did not rule out that the US move, originally aimed at Russia, could also damage the Serbian financial system.
Critika EU od Szijjártóa
Serbian oil company NIS operates the only refinery in Serbia and is majority controlled by Russian owners. NIS announced on Tuesday that without further deliveries, its plant in Pančevo would face a complete shutdown by the end of the week.
At the Belgrade meeting of the Central European Initiative, Szijjártó criticized the European Union, which, according to him, took bad measures in response to the crises caused by illegal immigration, the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, while Hungary reacted correctly to them. “And now we face the complete failure of a European war strategy that has ended up globalizing war instead of isolating it,” he added.
According to the head of Hungarian diplomacy, the EU has three major challenges and three failures behind it. “However, now we have a historic chance to end the war that is taking place in our neighborhood and for which we are all paying the price, although we bear no responsibility for it,” underlined Szijjártó and expressed the hope that the willingness to accept the new peace plan will now be stronger than the efforts of those who want to hinder it.
