Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Business FM on how Hungary plans to circumvent the EU ban on the import of Russian oil and gas:
"Restrictions on pipeline supplies are now carried out not through sanctions, but through a trade mechanism, in this way they are trying to circumvent the right of veto of Hungary and Slovakia. In principle, Hungary must comply with the general trade restrictions and customs restrictions of the European Union, but the EU is still not a single state, there are some loopholes and some flexibility. Orban, in fact, has built his entire political career on expanding the borders of Hungary's national sovereignty within the EU, and he can probably find some workarounds in this case. Although, of course, the violation will be obvious. But the maximum that this threatens is penalties from the EU, the freezing of the next tranches, but Orban has already faced this before.
Now, as far as I understand, his key task is to win the 2026 elections, where he has a rather shaky position, so we can say that part of his election program is quite logical and expected. Indeed, he is right that Hungary will lose a lot from the cessation of Russian oil and gas supplies. First of all, it will lose the competitive advantage it gained in 2022, when neighboring countries refused to supply from Russia, while Hungary, Slovakia and, at one time, Austria retained them. Hungary continues to receive resources at lower prices, and this significantly ensures the Hungarian industry competitiveness. All that the European Commission can offer Hungary and Slovakia is to equalize the conditions that they will receive gas and oil from neighboring countries, mainly transit from Italy, Germany, maybe from Greece, but these will be the same prices as in other EU countries, plus transportation costs, which increase the cost for consumers. Therefore, Hungary will lose a lot anyway."
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