By Krisztina Than and Julia Payne
BUDAPEST/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Hungary wants the European Union to persuade Ukraine to resume gas transit from Russia to Europe, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday, signalling a tough debate as the EU seeks to extend its sanctions against Russia over the coming week.
Hungary has not yet decided whether to support the sanctions rollover due at the end of this month. The EU renews sanctions every six months and requires unanimity among its 27 member countries to do so.
At a meeting of EU countries’ ambassadors in Brussels on Friday, Hungary agreed the renewal decision could be put on the agenda of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday but did not state its position on the issue, diplomats said.
Orban, whose government has maintained closer economic and political relations with Moscow than other EU countries, reiterated his criticism of the sanctions on Friday, saying they caused 19 billion euros ($19.9 billion) of financial damage to Hungary. He did not say how this number was calculated.
The sanctions up for renewal include all the sector-based bans on trade as well as measures that immobilised Russia’s central bank assets.
An EU diplomat said it would be a “catastrophe” if unanimity could not be reached and would create a problem with the Group of Seven nations (G7) as the frozen assets are being used as collateral for a $50 billion G7 loan to help Ukraine.
“Now the issue of the rollover of the sanctions is on the agenda and I have pulled the brakes and asked EU leaders to understand this cannot continue,” Orban told state radio.
“This is not good that we pay the price of helping Ukraine … and they cause us problems,” he said, referring to a recent move by Ukraine to halt Russian gas flows to Europe on the Druzhba pipeline.
“We ask them to convince Ukraine to resume the gas transit,” Orban said, adding Budapest also wanted guarantees that Ukraine would not halt Russian crude imports.
Hungary’s foreign minister has signalled there will be a big debate on the sanctions rollover at Monday’s meeting, saying Hungary would also consult its U.S. partners in the coming days.
In December 2023, Orban held up EU aid to Ukraine for weeks.
While western Europe countries have made progress in weaning themselves off Russian energy, landlocked Hungary gets some 80% of its gas and most of its crude from Russia. Russian gas to Hungary comes through the Turkstream pipeline via Serbia and the country did not import any gas via Ukraine last year.
The EU has suspended billions of euros of funds for Budapest over concerns Orban has damaged democratic checks and balances.
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(Reporting by Krisztina Than, Anita Komuves, Julia Payne, Lili Bayer and Andrew Gray. Editing by Ros Russell and Mark Potter)
