“The Hungarian Presidency of the V4, which commences in July, will also concentrate on ensuring that the region’s EU member states comply with European energy security regulations”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in Warsaw on Wednesday.
Prior to a meeting of the Visegrád Group (V4) and six countries of the Eastern Partnership in Warsaw, Mr. Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI: The fact that the transport and energy systems of Central and Eastern Europe are not sufficiently connected, and that some EU member states “aren’t properly complying with European energy security regulations” represents a “major and serious restrictive factor and risk factor”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said.
Accordingly, in the interests of staving off these restrictive factors the Hungarian Presidency of the V4 will also be concentrating on connecting Central and Eastern Europe’s transport and energy system, and on “requiring our region’s EU member states to comply with European regulations on energy security”, Mr. Szijjártó explained.
“Budapest has three main goals”, Mr. Szijjártó continued. “Firstly we must find a way of assuring that natural gas from Azerbaijan reaches Europe. Azerbaijan possessed major natural gas resources, and accordingly the Hungarian Presidency will be calling on the EU and Azerbaijan to conclude negotiations on a strategic partnership and to sign the framework agreement that will enable natural gas from Azerbaijan to become available to Europe’s gas supply, and within it to the gas supply of Central and Eastern Europe”, he explained.
“The second target is to apply China’s One Belt, One Road policy to infrastructure development projects”, he continued, pointing out that China is providing major funding for this purpose, with which missing stretches of rail and road can be constructed. “This would also improve Hungary’s competitive disadvantage relating to long transport times”, he noted, stressing that Hungary is also doing everything possible in this regard and has offered Ukraine a 50 million dollar tied aid credit line for road construction in Subcarpathia.
The third task is to “require” Romania and Croatia to “lift the southern energy blockade against Hungary”, in view of the fact that the transport of natural gas to Hungary is currently impossible via both the Hungarian-Croatian and Hungarian-Romanian gas interconnectors, Mr. Szijjártó said.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister also explained that it is in Europe’s security interests for there to be peace and stability in the countries of the Eastern partnership, and accordingly the EU “must finally shake off the expansion fatigue, which it to all intents and purposes preventing tighter and more flexible cooperation with the Eastern Partnership”.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)
