“It is vital from the perspective of Hungary’s energy supply that it should also be able to purchase gas from a southerly direction in future, and accordingly the declaration of intent on the realisation of a Hungarian-Croatian gas interconnector is strategically important”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in Budapest on Tuesday following the signing of the document.
The declaration of intent was signed by Minister of State for Energy András Aradszki from the Ministry of National Development and State Secretary for Energy Mario Šiljeg from the Croatian Ministry of Environment and Energy.
“Energy security continues to be an extremely critical issue for Central Europe, and it is partly in the economic interests of the countries of Central Europe, and at least as much in their national security interest, for north-south energy transport infrastructure to be developed”, Mr. Szijjártó stressed.
“The southern pillar of north-south infrastructure has fallen significantly behind the northern one and Hungary is currently unable to purchase gas from the south, and only the Hungarian party is able to sell gas to neighbouring countries via the Hungarian-Romanian and Hungarian-Croatian pipelines”, the Foreign Minister said.
Mr. Szijjártó explained that the agreement sets down the schedule according to which Croatia will enable two-way transport via the Hungarian-Croatian interconnector, and according to plan Hungary will also be able to purchase gas from Croatia from 2019.
The Foreign Minister stressed that an important condition for enabling Hungary to purchase gas from the south is the construction of the Croatian LNG terminal on the island of Krk. “Hungary wishes to provide all possible assistance towards the successful realisation of the project”, he added.
According to Mr. Szijjártó it is in Hungary’s strategic interests to establish the connection to the southern European gas corridor. For this reason, Hungary is in intensive negotiations with Serbia and Russia on creating an opportunity for Hungary to connect to the southern gas corridor through the modernisation of national gas pipelines and their interconnection. This would mean the establishment of a lower capacity gas pipeline along the planned route of the South Stream pipeline, he told reporters.
“It is in Hungary’s interests to diversify both transport routes and gas sources”, the Foreign Minister said.
At the press conference, Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Martina Dalić also stressed that the declaration of intent was an important step towards connecting energy markets and reinforcing energy security within the European Union.
EU Commissioner for Energy and Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič spoke, amongst others, about the fact that the cooperation is an excellent indicate of the fact that the European Union is striving to provide access to affordable and clean energy sources through energy union, adding that there is a need for good networks and also good cooperation between regulatory authorities and service providers in the region.
In reply to a question on whether the differences of opinion between Hungary and the European Union with regard to energy union had been discussed at the meeting in Budapest, Mr. Šefčovič said the parties had agreed that they wanted to provide affordable, lower competitive prices.
However, he also told reporters that the European Commission believes that “the energy market must be liberalised”, because especially the electricity market is overregulated in many member states, adding that a particularly important goal was to protect vulnerable consumers.
Mr. Szijjártó stressed that keeping energy prices low was a strategic issue for Hungary, because it is an important competitive factor. According to the Hungarian standpoint, the national energy mix must remain within a national sphere of competence and must be technology-neutral, in addition to which Hungary would not like nuclear energy to suffer negative discrimination.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister explained that he hoped a solution would be found that resects these four Hungarian corner points, but does not prevent any kind of European cooperation.
In reply to a question on developments in the dispute between the Croatians and Hungarian energy company MOL, both Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Martina Dalić and the Hungarian Foreign Minister confirmed that issues relating to Croatian energy company INA had not been on the agenda of Tuesday’ meetings.
The conflict has been ongoing since 2013, when the Croatians accused MOL of acquiring 49.08 percent of INA’s shares through corrupting in 2009, and of violating its commitments according to the shareholders’ contract, but MOL has denied the charges throughout and claims to be acting in accordance with the relative contracts.
Croatia has offered to repurchase INA, and the Hungarian party has indicated that it will be selling its chares in the Croatian oil company.
“There are no new development, the standpoint of the Hungarian Government continues to be that the amount of money that is returned to Hungary with relation to the transaction must be equal to the amount that left the country as an investment”, Mr. Szijjártó said, adding that “MOL must come to an agreement with the Croatian Government”.