Brussels does not have the right to prohibit commercial agreements with non- European Union countries such as Russia, China or Arab countries, János Lázár told a weekly press briefing on Thursday, commenting on the European Commission’s decision to launch the procedure over the deal in which Russian energy giant Rosatom won the main contract.

“It is only natural that there is a lot of pushing and shoving when it comes to a 12 billion euro deal,” Lázár said, adding that the issue at hand is a trade dispute and whether EU member states have access to the money.

Hungary guarantees that Hungarian and other EU businesses can participate in up to 60% of the project, he said, adding that no other nuclear energy development in the EU had been subject to a public tender.

The dispute with the EU will not affect Russia’s end of the deal. “We will honour our agreement with Russia,” he insisted.

Lázár said Hungary had notified the EC of its intention to sign a deal with Russia back in November 2013, but the body only decided to launch an infringement procedure 24 months later.

He noted that during this time the EC approved Hungary and Russia’s contract on the delivery of fuel for the power plant, the technical parameters of the upgrade and in January 2014 it approved the bilateral agreement, which the government office chief said indicated that the EU was not against the investment itself.

Hungarian opposition parties demanded that the government suspend preparations for the upgrade.

The Socialist Party deputy group leader, Bertalan Tóth, noted that his party had said since the beginning that a project of this magnitude cannot be carried out without consulting the public and civil and professional organisations or by circumventing Hungarian and EU laws.

“After the EU decision which validated our concerns, we expect the government to end the secrecy around the Paks upgrade and to reveal ... how it had conducted the public procurement process,” Tóth said.

Bernadett Szél of the green LMP party said that the government “had probably begun” to use up Russia’s loan while it was to be expected that the European Union would start several procedures against Hungary, which she said would ultimately result in the end of the project.

She insisted it was not nuclear power that the government wanted but the loan, which she said would be used for corrupt purposes.

The Együtt party said the government should account for the taxpayer money that had been spent on the Paks upgrade and to publish every contract connected to the deal.

Viktor Szigetvári noted that his party had said from the beginning that the project would leave Hungary heavily indebted to Russia.

He called on the government to spend the funds put aside for Paks on clean energy and to put together a new, comprehensive long-term energy strategy.

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MTI photo: Soós Lajos