EU countries asked the EC to ensure the supply of Azerbaijani gas

BUDAPEST (RIA Novosti): Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia appealed to the EC with a request to allocate funds for the development of infrastructure for the supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

“Together with the Bulgarians, Romanians and Slovaks, we have appealed to the European Commission to deal with this issue as a matter of priority and provide financial support for the development of infrastructure in the region necessary to include an increased amount of Azerbaijani gas along the route through Turkey , Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia in the energy security of southern and central Europe,” Szijjarto said at a press conference with Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov. The speech was broadcast on Facebook .

According to him, we are talking about the development of infrastructure, the construction of new interconnectors and increasing the capacity of existing ones.

“In this situation, it will become clear whether the EU is ready to take a step towards real diversification from the talks that have been heard so far about the importance of diversification for the security of supply in Central Europe,” Szijjártó said.

In September, at a meeting of energy ministers of the Turkic states, Szijjarto stated that the volume of gas coming from Azerbaijan to Europe would double in the coming years, calling this the most real opportunity to diversify European energy supply.

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry stated that Hungary is working on diversifying gas supplies to the country, but in the short term it will not be possible to replace Russian energy carriers. In addition to increasing the import of Azerbaijani gas, Hungary is interested in increasing LNG supplies to the country through the terminal in Croatian Krk and developing a gas field in Romania.

Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Europe is losing by refusing Russian energy sources in favor of American ones, since it is forced to overpay for them by 5-10 times. According to him, Europe should ask “American friends” questions about who wins in this situation.