EU rebukes Hungary's FM for attending Moscow energy conference

The European Commission reacted swiftly to the latest trip by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó to Moscow on Wednesday, saying the visit “is not the right message to Putin.”

The top Hungarian diplomat defied the majority of EU states once again by attending an energy conference in the Russian capital, where he called the EU’s energy diversification attempts to phase out fossil fuels “crazy”.

A European Commission spokesperson told the press on Wednesday that any bilateral contacts by member states should respect the EU position and policies, in particular, when the bloc is scaling down its relations with Moscow to the minimum.

"Being in Moscow, right now is not the right message to Putin, because time and context matter," spokesperson Anitta Hipper said.

She added that the EU is currently preparing its 19th Russian sanctions package, including a full ban on LNG imports and sanctions against two major Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Gazprom Neft.

Hungary still imports a significant portion of its fossil fuels from Russia. The EU's REpowerEU roadmap plans to phase out all imports from Russia by 2027. This would also cut Hungary's oil imports from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline.

"Currently, there are two oil pipelines leading to Hungary, and Brussels wants us to eliminate one in the name of diversification," Szijjártó said in Moscow on Wednesday.

"But how can the elimination of one pipeline be called diversification? How can one pipeline be considered safer than two?" he asked, calling it "madness, complete illogicality."

The other oil pipeline enters Hungary from Croatia. However, according to the Hungarian government, the Adria pipeline is insufficient for the country's needs as a landlocked country.