The European Union “
shot itself in the lungs
” with sanctions against Russia because of the war in Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday July 15, calling on EU leaders to change their policy in this regard.
“
At first I thought we just shot ourselves in the foot, but the European economy has shot itself in the lungs and is asphyxiated
,” Viktor Orban said in an address on national radio. .
“
There are countries engaged in the policy of sanctions but Brussels must admit that it was a mistake, that (the sanctions) did not achieve their goal, and that they even had the opposite effect
”, a- he added.
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Russian sanctions 'penalize us even more'
Viktor Orban was a staunch opponent of the embargo on most Russian oil decreed in early June by the EU in its sixth package of sanctions against Russia.
The EU had made a concession to Viktor Orban by exempting the oil transported by pipeline on which Hungary depends.
"
Brussels believed that the sanctions policy would penalize the Russians, but it penalizes us even more
," said the head of the Hungarian government.
Hungary, which imports 65% of its oil and 80% of its gas, announced on Wednesday a "
state of emergency
" to respond to the energy crisis.
The measures provide in particular that individuals consuming more gas and electricity than the average will have to pay the surplus at the market price and not at the regulated tariff.
"
We are obliged to charge a higher price, because otherwise the system is no longer viable
", explained Viktor Orban in his radio intervention.
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Russia, for its part, has sharply reduced gas deliveries while the Russian Gazprom said on Wednesday that it could not guarantee the proper functioning of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which supplies Europe and which is at a standstill, saying to itself in the impossibility of confirming that it will recover a German turbine repaired in Canada.