Budapest announced on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with Moscow to amend the contracts for the extension of a nuclear power plant in Hungary, an amendment that must now be given the green light by Brussels.
“We had to change them” as a result of the sanctions against Russia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook, accusing the European Commission of trying to “block fruitful nuclear cooperation” between the two countries.
“We will submit these amendments for approval,” he said during a visit to Moscow, adding that two other agreements had been reached on gas and oil.
According to him, the two sides have agreed to extend an option for Hungary to buy more gas than under its current contract, if necessary, according to Szijjarto, who has visited Russia several times since the invasion of Ukraine began. The Hungarian group MOL will also “directly negotiate transit fees with Ukrainian operators” of theDruzhba pipeline, he said.
In August, the Hungarian government announced the imminent start of construction of two new nuclear reactors, in collaboration with the Russian conglomerate Rosatom, on the Paks site, with the aim of bringing them into operation in 2030. This controversial project, launched nine years ago and validated by Brussels in 2017, illustrates the ties forged over the years by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The war in Ukraine has not changed Hungary’s position on the issue, contrary to the desire of its European Union partners to free itself from Moscow. At the beginning of May, Rosatom lost a major contract in Finland. The agreement signed in January 2014 awards it the construction of two reactors, known as “Paks II”, on the site of Hungary’s only Soviet-designed nuclear power plant, an hour’s drive from Budapest. This 12.5 billion euro project is financed to the tune of 80%, or 10 billion euros, by a loan from Russia to Hungary, which is responsible for the remaining 2.5 billion euros.
