A new agreement has been reached on European Union sanctions against Russia, which is basically about clarifying the existing rules and does not contain any restrictions regarding the transport of energy carriers, according to the ministry's announcement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Monday in Brussels.
During the break of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting, the head of the ministry reported that in the light of the escalation of acts of war in Ukraine, it is no longer an exaggeration to say that "a miscalculation took place" during the European responses, and that the current measures are also based on the previous approach.
He pointed out: although the government believes that peace should be sought first and foremost, they did not boycott the political agreement, did not break the unity of the community, so the details will begin to be worked out during the day.
Péter Szijjártó emphasized that it is basically a matter of clarifying the existing rules, and even more importantly, what is not included in the package, because despite the efforts of certain member states, it does not have any restrictions on the transport of energy carriers, such as sanctioning Gazprombank.
"We very strongly indicated that if the sanctioning of Gazprombank were included in the sanctions list, then we would not be able to give Hungary's support for it, so the sanction proposal that has already come before us does not include Gazprombank, as there are no restrictions on the transport of energy carriers."
In this connection, he touched on Western European concern about the depletion of natural gas supplies, which he called strange, after several statements could be heard earlier that the countries in question had already resolved the issue. "Compared to this, the current alarm shows something different, reality has prevailed," he said, adding that Hungary has long maintained that gas delivery is not an ideological, but a physical issue.
"It seems that the overwriting of the laws of physics in this regard has not been solved in the western half of Europe either," he underlined.
He also stated that the supply of our country is still on solid footing, gas storage capacity is 26.6 percent of the annual consumption, well above the EU average of less than 15 percent. As he said, storage is ongoing, and commercial negotiations are ongoing both in the eastern and western directions for the purchase of approximately 700 million cubic meters of natural gas in addition to the quantities already contracted.
According to the plans, among other things, a gold embargo will be introduced, the trade of so-called dual-use products will be tightened, further restrictions will be imposed on public procurement and the acceptance of deposits, and prohibitions will be established in relation to other, basically, accounting, auditing, bookkeeping and tax consulting services.
In addition, another forty-eight individuals and nine organizations will be added to the EU's sanctions list, including a Russian deputy prime minister, several political leaders of member republics and Sberbank. In connection with the latter, the Hungarian government made a technical proposal for later entry into force in order for the financial institution to fully compensate its former Hungarian clients.
The minister announced that a decision was also made at the meeting that another 500 million euros from the resources of the European Peace Framework will be regrouped to finance arms shipments to Ukraine.
He emphasized: the government did not block this decision either, but at the same time it does not change its position and continues not to deliver weapons or allow direct weapons shipments through the country.
"It is a strange contradiction that the European Union opportunity, from which the EU is now financing weapons, is called the European Peace Framework," he opined.
"Peace is the only solution to the current situation, and peace is the solution to all the problems that war has caused us," he concluded.
Source: MTI
