Planned EU embargo: Hungary does not want to do without Russian oil

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Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó shared Hungary's position on an oil embargo in a video on Facebook

Photo: FEHIM DEMIR / EPA

Hungary is demanding a comprehensive exemption from the planned EU sanctions against Russian oil imports.

"The Hungarian government will support the oil embargo if it doesn't affect us," Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in a video posted to his Facebook page.

The proposed sanctions would be acceptable to Hungary, for example, if all oil supplies coming from Russia via pipelines are exempted, he added.

In negotiations that have been going on for a week now, EU countries have not yet reached an agreement on an oil embargo against Russia.

The EU Commission has proposed ending imports of Russian crude oil in six months because of the Ukraine war.

As a compromise, the Commission proposes giving Hungary and Slovakia until the end of 2024 and the Czech Republic until mid-2024 to fully implement the oil import ban.

Hungary only wants to agree to "full compensation".

The proposal does not go far enough for the government in Budapest.

The Danube region gets 65 percent of its oil needs from Russia.

This amount only comes into the country via pipelines.

Switching to non-Russian oil would be too expensive, Szijjártó says in the video.

Should the sanctions package come on the table without the exemption requested by Hungary for deliveries via pipelines, Budapest would only agree if the EU "fully compensates Hungary," the foreign minister said.

In this case, the conversion and adjustment costs would amount to »several billion euros«.

In order for the sanctions package to be adopted, all EU countries must agree.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Brussels on Monday to talk to President Viktor Orbán about the oil embargo, and on Tuesday Emmanuel Macron spoke to Orbán about a possible oil embargo against Russia.

The purpose of the talks was "to come to an agreement on the sixth sanctions package as quickly as possible," it said from the Élysée Palace.

svs/dpa