At the signing ceremony, the Minister pointed out that Hungary does not have significant natural gas resources and is therefore heavily dependent on others in this area, which is why diversification is crucial for the country, but the government understands this to mean attracting new resources, not merely changing the “geographical direction of dependence”.
“The best solution to the current energy crisis would be to bring more gas to Europe, from more sources and through more routes,” he said, adding that the most realistic solution for Central Europe today would be to import gas from Azerbaijan, but that this would require appropriate transport routes.
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The Foreign Minister stressed that the more a country is cut off from the sea, the more it depends on the surrounding energy infrastructure. He added that the development of infrastructure in Central and South-Eastern Europe is the responsibility of the countries concerned, they are to prepare and organize investments, but the European Union must also play a role in financing it.
The inclusion of new energy sources is a real European issue, and therefore a European obligation,”
he said. He added that it would be legitimate to demand that the European Union finally take this matter seriously and support the diversification of gas supplies to the countries of Central and Southern Europe. According to Péter Szijjártó, the failure to do so would further undermine the EU’s credibility in energy policy.
The Minister underlined that
the Hungarian transmission system operator is ready to make all the necessary improvements, as is the government, in order to increase the capacity of the Hungarian section of the Solidarity Ring from Romania to Slovakia to five billion cubic meters per year.
“Without the Solidarity Ring, without European funding, we, who actually live in the central part of Central Europe, will not be able to get significant quantities of gas from Azerbaijan,” he concluded. The Solidarity Ring would be used to bring Azerbaijani gas to Central Europe, with a route from Turkey through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Slovakia.
