“The national energy mix and deciding the composition of energy sources falls within a national sphere of competence, and this must be respected”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in Moscow in his speech at the Russian Energy Week conference.
“I must declare extremely clearly that we regard the national energy mix as an issue that falls within a sphere of national competence”, the Minister said.
“We expect everybody to respect this competency with relation to all countries”, he stressed.
“The Hungarian Government never comments on national energy mixes, and we expect others to act in a similar manner and refrain from passing judgement with relation to Hungary’s energy mix, in which nuclear energy will play a determining role”, he added.
In Hungary, where Paks currently generates almost half of the country’s electricity, the ratio of carbon-free energy production will increase to 90 percent by 2030.
Mr. Szijjártó underlined that energy security is a question of sovereignty for Hungary, and accordingly its energy supply must be clean, safe and cheap. He pointed out that in Central Europe the diversification of energy supply requires major infrastructure development projects, and particularly in a north-south direction.
The Minister said that the diversification of Hungary’s natural gas supply is vital from the perspective of both sources and supply routes. He pointed out that an agreement has been successfully reached with Russia on the quantity of natural gas to be shipped next year, 4.3 billion cubic metres, and negotiations are also underway with relation to gas purchasing for 2020. He expressed his hope that the existing agreement between Hungary and Russian state energy corporation Gazprom, which expires at the end of this year, will be extended by a further four years.
Mr. Szijjártó explained that Hungary has an interest in three projects with relation to energy security: the construction of the second Turkish Stream pipeline, through which natural gas could begin arriving in Hungary by 2021, in addition to which if it is cost-effective then the construction of the Croatian LNG terminal at Krk, as well as in the future extraction of Romanian Black Sea natural gas.
He stressed that nuclear energy must not be negatively discriminated against and that Hungary would like to increase its ratio within the national energy mix. With relation to the Paks-2 Nuclear Power Plant project, he said the Hungarian Government doesn’t just regard it as the flagship of Russian-Hungarian cooperation and the country’s largest economic development project, but also as an opportunity for restoring pragmatic cooperation between East and West.
“Paks-2’s main contractor is Rosatom, but subcontractors also include Western European and American companies, and according to the contrast 40 percent of the project must be realised by Hungarian enterprises”, the Minister explained.
At the forum, the Minister told reporters that he expects the two blocks of the power plant to in the very near future receive the required permissions, which will enable the commencement of construction. Mr. Szijjártó expressed his hope that the Austrian legal action against Paks will be rejected, adding that the court case initiated by the neighbouring country would not delay construction work.
Mr. Szijjártó, who amongst others held talks with Minister of Trade and Industry Dennis Manturov, CEO of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev and Quatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, will be received by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this afternoon.
(MTI)
