Jobbik: Gas Pipeline Avoiding Ukraine Must For Hungary
- 4 Dec 2014 3:00 AM
Hungary’s gas supplies should be balanced and multi-faceted, which requires a pipeline that bypasses Ukraine, the radical nationalist Jobbik party said. Bulgaria has refused to start work on the South Stream pipeline on pressure from the EU and the US, Lajos Kepli, the party’s lawmaker, said. He added, however, that Russia had not given up on the idea of exporting gas to Europe.
There are plans, for example, to take one leg of the network towards Turkey to the Greek border.
It would be reasonable to build Serbian and Hungarian sections as planned, and gas could travel from the hub through Macedonia. “Without Russian gas central Europe is in trouble,” Kepli said. He called the idea that missing supplies could be supplemented by liquefied gas from the US a “fantasy”, as this would be more expensive and its source is uncertain.
Strategic Hungarian energy interests call for making gas pipelines operational in both directions, Kepli said, noting that at the moment Hungary is unable to receive gas from Croatia.
Jobbik would support the northern version of the pipeline – gas arriving to Slovakia via Belarus and Poland – as an alternative solution.
Hungarian governments must firmly stand by plans to bring gas to Hungary from as many directions as possible and by avoiding Ukraine. Jobbik calls on the government to put pressure on the EU and represent Hungary’s interests on this matter, he said.
Source www.hungarymatters.hu
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