The European Union should act immediately to help keep energy prices in check, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a press conference on Wednesday, adding that his country has already come up with three proposals on the matter.
Orbán suggested that as long as the war lasts and energy prices rise, the administrative regulation that would result in rising prices should be suspended, “no matter why we introduced them.”
He also mentioned the complicated regulation on the taxation of fossil fuels, as well as the rule that links the price of electricity with the price of gas, and called for the requirement to blend biofuel additives into fuels to be suspended.
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The Hungarian prime minister warned that a serious economic crisis was unfolding, for a number of reasons, but of which the most important was the punitive sanctions imposed on Russia.
“We’re going to pay the price for that,” Orbán said. “We need to be prepared to deal with this economic crisis in the euro,” he stressed, adding that “we are capable of this, we will do everything we can to protect Hungarian families.”
At the same press conference, Orbán also said that Hungary will, for the time being, maintain the price cap on fuels and basic food items.
Hungary introduced a fuel price cap in November and a price cap on six basic food groups in January in an attempt to mitigate the rise in the cost of living.
