Hungary and Slovakia block EC plan to cut off supplies from Russia

Hungary and Slovakia blocked the European Commission's plan rejecting Russian oil, gas and nuclear fuel at the EU energy ministers meeting. This was stated by Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto, who took part in the EU meeting in Luxembourg, TASS reported.

"I spoke against these decisions and Slovaks said they did not support it also. The struggle continues and therefore we will definitely discuss this issue many times more in different places," Szijjarto said, streamed by M1 television.

The Foreign Minister noted that firstly, this plan will lead to a rise in energy prices in Europe and will do harm to the economy of the entire European Union. Secondly, it is absolutely unacceptable in the environment of the military conflict between Israel and Iran, which can create the threat to energy security globally. "That is why we put forward the initiative today that the European Commission does not propose legislation aimed at prohibiting Russian energy resources. This legislation required the decision of the EU Council on Energy and we vetoed it today together with Slovakia," the minister explained.

He expressed hope that there would be no progress in the implementation of the European Commission's initiative so far. Brussels' plan envisages a gradual phase-out of oil, gas and nuclear fuel supplies for power stations from Russia to EU countries in the coming years.

Budapest believes that Brussels came up with this initiative under pressure from Kiev in order to support Ukraine and hurt Russia. The Hungarian government calls these proposals the "von der Leyen-Zelensky plan".