Hungary's foreign minister said on Saturday the European Commission's decision not to mediate in a dispute over a blockage of oil supplies from Russia via Ukraine into his country suggested that Brussels was behind the stoppage.
Hungary and its neighbour Slovakia have been protesting since Ukraine put Russian oil producer Lukoil on a sanctions list in June, stopping that company's oil from passing through Ukrainian territory to Slovak and Hungarian refineries.
The assertion from Hungary's Peter Szijjarto, which he made without providing evidence, came a day after the European Commission declined a request from Hungary and Slovakia for it to mediate between them and Ukraine over the sanctions.
“Many EU members took costly but necessary efforts to get rid from dependence on Russian gas and oil … mainly because it stinks of blood,” said one EU diplomat, who like others for this story was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU imposed an embargo on imports of Russian oil — a key lifeline that remains one of the primary sources of revenue for the Kremlin’s war effort.
But it exempted pipeline supplies — including those coming to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic via the Druzhba pipeline — to give those countries time to find alternative supplies, with the understanding they would do so rapidly.
Germany and Poland, who also imported supplies from Druzhba, stopped buying Russia’s crude last year. The Czech Republic aims to end its imports from Moscow by 2025, while Slovakia too has begun upgrading its primary refinery to process more non-Russian crude.
But Hungary chose to go the other way, instead ramping up oil imports via the pipeline by 50 percent compared to 2021. Budapest also inked new deals with Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The Algyő oil field is an oil field located in Algyő, Csongrád County, in Hungary. It was discovered in 1965 and developed by MOL Group. It began production in 1965 and produces oil. The total proven reserves of the Algyő oil field are approximately 629 million barrels (84×106tonnes). It provides nearly half of Hungary's crude oil.
Oh, we're past that. In 2022 they made restrictions on wood cutting more lax, allowing felling of trees in previously protected areas. It caused pretty bad health issues in the winter in smaller towns, especially in valleys where the chimney smoke can't even leave the area.
So way into the 21st century, the government actually promoted heating with wood (partly from previously protected areas), and the next year when solar power gained some popularity, they made it harder and more expensive/less profitable to install solar panels and connect them to the grid. All this shortly after their propaganda slogan "Hungary is going forward, not backward".