Halfway through the two-day European summit centered around a gas price cap in the EU and the larger issue of the war in Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that should a gas price cap become reality, the prices of his country’s long-term gas delivery deals will not be affected.
Orbán logged on to his Facebook page at two in the morning, at the end of the summit’s first day. As the prime minister wrote, the most important issue, which is energy, had been concluded.
“The Commission’s energy proposals were the biggest threat to Hungary. If we had accepted them, we would have risked cutting off gas supplies to Hungary within a few days. Today, we have successfully averted this danger. We are not alone, and we have managed to negotiate a fair agreement,” wrote the prime minister.
It was further revealed that the agreement means similar exemptions for Hungary as the May deal regarding oil sanctions on Russia. At the latest summit, member states agreed that if there is a gas price cap in Europe, it will not affect existing long-term contracts. If such an exemption had not been carved out, Hungary’s gas supply from Russia would have become impossible overnight to maintain.
It has also been agreed that even if there is a common gas procurement in Europe, it will not be binding for Hungary. Orbán stated that this means that all procurement options will remain open to Hungary.
“This is important because we can only bring down the price of energy in Hungary if there are more sources available and more competition on the Hungarian energy market,” Orbán wrote.
