Despite the success of RePowerEU, Hungary is seeking to increase its gas imports from Russia

The Energy Council held on October 15th in Luxembourg underlined that Europe has entered the heating season with a solid step. This is thanks to RePowerEU, the European programm established to overcome the need of Russian gas supplies.

RePowerEU success

Among the topics the ministers addressed, there was the preparation for winter. “We entered the heating season with a relatively solid pace thanks to those measures we took with RePowerEU. Our gas storage is at 95% capacity and injections into storage continue and this is more than insurance against supply disruptions and helps to keep prices stable”, Simson explained.

“RePowerEU plan is a major achievement of this mandate. In 2019, no one would have thought that we would end this five years in a complete different energy landscape. The acceleration of renewables has been unprecedended”, stated commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson during the press conference at the end of the Council.

Not only that: the EU is also ready for the end of the contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz that allows Russian gas to flow through Ukraine. “As you know, the gas transit agreement between Gazprom and Naftogaz will end at the end of the year.

Today I reiterated to the ministers that we are ready. We knew that this contract would expire by the end of the year and the Commission has been working closely with the most affected member states to prepare for a zero transit scenario from 1 January 2025“, she pointed out. But at the same time Brussels makes it clear that rising LNG arrivals from Russia are not acceptable.

Hungary goes its own way

In the meantime, while ministers were discussing about the future of energy in the EU, Budapest is in talks with Gazprom, Russian’s energy giant, to increase gas supplies in 2025. And Hungary threatens to block the European sanctions regime if Brussels has anything to say about it.

“We will increase the volumes” of gas imported from Russia, said the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, in an interview published on Tuesday (15 October) by the Ria Novosti news agency. A willingness, that of the Hungarian minister, which sounds like a provocation to the 27 Member States of which Budapest is a member.

“We have already signed” an agreement “for the last quarter of this year, covering additional volumes” of gas at a competitive price, Szijjártó added, also announcing that an “agreement for next year” is being negotiated with the company. The state-owned Gazprom and its Hungarian counterpart, Mol, signed a memorandum of understanding for increased supplies on 10 October.