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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (archive photo)
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Attila Kisbenedek/ AFP
Hungary does not want to support the tightening of sanctions against Russia planned by the EU Commission.
The expansion of import restrictions on oil and gas from Russia is a red line for him, said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
He was also willing to pay for gas supplies in rubles, as required by Russia.
Other EU countries, such as Germany, reject this and want to continue paying their bills in euros or dollars.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had previously threatened an oil embargo in addition to a ban on coal imports in response to alleged war crimes by Russian troops.
"These sanctions will not be our last sanctions," she said in the European Parliament in relation to the proposed import ban on Russian coal.
"Now we have to look at oil and the revenue that Russia gets from fossil fuels."
Similarly, EU Council President Charles Michel said: "I think that action on oil or even gas will be needed sooner or later."
»No common attitude necessary«
Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, on the other hand, stated that the country's gas supply was regulated by a contract with the state-owned MVM and the Russian company Gazprom.
The EU plays no role in this treaty.
In his view, a common stance among the EU countries that import Russian gas is not necessary.
According to its foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell, the European Union has spent 35 billion euros on energy imports to Russia since the beginning of the war.
This shows how important it is to reduce the EU's dependence on energy imports, said the Spaniard in the Strasbourg European Parliament.
Borrell contrasted this sum with "only one billion euros," the value of which had been granted to Ukraine for arms and military equipment.
"Today we stop the coal, but that's only a very small part of the equation," he said.
The EU Commission had proposed a coal embargo for the member states, which the EU states must now decide unanimously on.
It is planned that there will be a three-month transitional period for the coal import ban, during which deliveries should still be possible.
The EU mainly buys fossil fuels from Russia – so it can exert a lot of pressure here through sanctions.
According to statistics agency Eurostat, almost two-thirds of all imports from Russia to the EU are energy.
The federal states paid 99 billion euros for this last year.
Last year, energy was sometimes much cheaper than this year.
The EU Commission announced on Wednesday that it will provide technical assistance to 17 countries to reduce Russian imports of fossil fuels as quickly as possible.
EU Parliament Vice-President Katarina Barley told the ZDF morning magazine that she expects an EU import ban on oil from Russia next.
"Oil will also come relatively quickly, I think." Banning Russian gas imports would be difficult, Barley said.
This would not only have a problem in Germany, but also in other countries.
If gas embargo, then quickly
Ifo President Clemens Fuest, on the other hand, called for an immediate gas embargo.
"If it makes any sense to stop gas imports from Russia, then immediately," Fuest writes in an article by the Munich Ifo Institute for Economic Research.
"It seems very doubtful today whether we want to end these imports in 2024, as the federal government is now planning." After the end of the Ukraine war, it would be wiser to import gas from Russia again - in order to be able to continue to put pressure on Russia.
German industry supports the planned coal sanctions against Russia, but warns of a gas embargo.
Admittedly, the renunciation of Russian coal is not easy to implement and has its price, "but the decision is more than understandable against the background of the escalation of violence," said Siegfried Russwurm, President of the Federation of German Industries.
The situation with gas is completely different, according to Russwurm: "A complete failure of Russian gas supplies, which other suppliers cannot replace in the short term, would be a huge stress test for the EU - with unforeseeable consequences for security of supply, growth, employment and our political ability to act." Federal government rejects an embargo on Russian gas imports and warns of serious damage to the economy.
According to the German importers, Russian coal could be dispensed with completely, but not until next winter, and there was a risk of higher prices.
"Russian hard coal can be replaced by coal from other countries such as the USA, South Africa, Australia, Colombia, Mozambique and Indonesia," said Alexander Bethe, chairman of the coal importers' association, to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
mamk/dpa-AFX/Reuters