Hungary Exempt from European Gas Price Cap
- 24 Oct 2022 6:27 AM
- Hungary Matters
Hungary has been granted exemption from the European Union's gas price cap, "which will therefore not jeopardise secure gas supplies" to the country, Hungary’s prime minister said.
Speaking on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels in the early hours of Friday, Viktor Orbán said “we have managed to protect Hungary’s interests,” the prime minister wrote in a Facebook message.
Orbán said the European Commission’s energy proposals had “posed the greatest danger” for Hungary. “Adopting them would have risked a stoppage of gas deliveries to the country within days,” he said.
That threat, he said, had been averted: “Hungary was not left alone and managed to negotiate a fair deal”.
“We agreed that even if a gas price cap were introduced in Europe, it would not impact the long-term agreements without which Hungary’s gas supplies would be made impossible overnight,” Orbán said. Participants in the summit also agreed that if there were joint gas purchasing in Europe, it would not be mandatory for Hungary.
“That’s important because we can only bring domestic energy prices down with more sources of supply at our disposal, with more competition on the Hungarian energy market,” he added.
XpatLoop Media Partner
LATEST NEWS IN current affairs