After a meeting with Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the French energy minister, in Paris on Wednesday, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said cooperation between Hungary and France in the area of energy is "outstanding".
Minister Szijjártó said energy was "the most successful area of bilateral cooperation" between Hungary and France, adding that the sides were "in full agreement" on the use of nuclear energy.
He augured a "dramatic" increase in demand for electricity to power heating and cooling systems, industrial capacity and electric vehicles. Nuclear energy is the "only affordable, safe and stable" means to meet that demand, he said. "Without nuclear energy, there can be no green transition in Europe, and without nuclear energy, there can be no economic competitiveness on the continent," he added.
He pointed to the establishment of a coalition of European countries that use nuclear energy and see the issue as one "based on facts and science" not as an "ideological, political or philosophical" question.
French companies are playing a "key role" in the expansion of Hungary's Paks nuclear power plant, delivering the control system as well as the generators and turbines, Minister Szijjártó said.