Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, talked to European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis on Friday over the phone and discussed the situation in the wake of Ukraine’s decision to "introduce an oil blockade without previous announcement".
Minister Szijjártó said on Facebook that “it became clear during the talks that we see the nature and consequences of the Ukrainian decision differently.” Hungary’s stance is clear, he said: Hungary thinks that the EC “should not allow a membership candidate to play games with two member states and to put the safety of their energy supply at risk.” The decision is endangering one-third of Hungary’s oil imports from the east. In Slovakia’s case, that proportion is almost 45%, he said. “We also see the step as a breach of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement,” he said. He also briefed Dombrovskis on Hungary’s stance that Croatia was not a reliable transit country, as it steeply raised transit fees after the war started. Croatia had also failed to agree to Hungary securing capacities for the long term, and the actual capacity of its pipeline remained unclear, he said. Therefore, Ukraine’s decision to curb transit may make Hungary and Slovakia “vulnerable to various business and political interests”, he said. “We expect the EC to stand up for the interests of Hungary and Slovakia,” Szijjártó said.