Tamás Menczer, the communications director of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrats, has claimed that there was “a good chance” the move to halt the transit of significant volumes of Russian crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia had been recommended to Ukraine by Brussels “or even [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen herself”.
Menczer told public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió and news channel M1 that by stopping crude deliveries, Ukraine was endangering Hungary’s and Slovakia’s energy security, which was in breach of its association agreement with the European Union. He said the European Commission should take steps in the interest of protecting the member states impacted by the move and “safeguard” the implementation of the agreement, “yet nothing is happening”. “We have to be increasingly firm in saying what we were saying at the beginning, which is that there’s a good chance that it was Brussels or [EC President] Ursula von der Leyen herself who had recommended to Ukraine that it should cut off oil deliveries,” Menczer said. He said Hungary would use every means possible to protect itself, “but it wouldn’t hurt if for once the commission acted in accordance with the regulations and in common sense, but it looks like we can’t count on this.” Menczer said there were both legal and technical options for addressing the situation. Underlining that Hungary did not want to “blackmail Ukraine back”, he said it is a fact that a significant amount of the energy Ukraine uses is delivered to the country via Hungary. Asked about the fine the European Court of Justice instructed Hungary to pay for refusing to implement several EU migration rules, Menczer said the timing of the fine was not coincidental, adding that Hungary’s commitment to peace could have been one of the reasons behind it.