The country expressed significant reservations about the new proposal during initial conversations among ambassadors last week, according to several people in the room — refusing to oppose the measure outright but making its wariness evident.
The push is a significant shift in EU strategy, coming as evidence mounts that its efforts to slash the Kremlin’s fossil fuel revenues — used to finance its war in Ukraine — are falling short.
And Europe’s LNG markets are far more stable than they were right after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, giving Brussels a freer hand to impose restrictions, said Tom Marzec-Manser, head of gas analytics at intelligence firm ICIS.
However, Marzec-Manser cautioned, while energy markets in Central European countries like Hungary have stabilized in recent months, any changes to supply could make prices for consumers “very, very volatile.”
Last week, as the latest sanctions proposal — the EU’s 14th wartime package — started circulating, Hungary reiterated its opposition to targeting Russia’s energy sector.
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó made similar comments in Moscow last year, insisting that Hungary’s energy security “requires uninterrupted transportation of gas, oil and nuclear fuel.”
The original article contains 629 words, the summary contains 184 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!