Hungary/Slovenia – Hungary and Slovenia agreed to expand their cooperation in the field of energy. On Wednesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó and the Slovenian Minister of the Environment, Climate and Energy Bojan Kumer signed a memorandum of understanding in Budapest. The two neighbouring countries plan to link their gas networks by 2025 by building an interconnector with an annual bidirectional capacity of 440 million cubic meters for 75 millions euros.

Hungary, heavily dependent on Russian energy, considers this interconnector to be “a significant contribution” to the security of her energy supply, as it paves the way for access to sources of LNG from Italy, explained minister Szijjártó. So far, Hungary has access to the LNG terminal of Krk, on the coast of Croatia, but is still looking for a diversification of her sources. Hungary and Slovenia also agreed on an extended cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. Each country have one single nuclear power plant, but both plan to extend their lifespan and Hungary is also building a new bloc to her power plant of Paks.

“It was a crucial problem that now Europe is to pay seven times more for natural gas than the US, and three times more for electricity than China”
At the forum of the US-Hungarian Business Council (USHBC), hold on Tuesday, the Foreign Minister talked about the competitiveness of Hungary. “Last year was the most successful year in Hungarian economic history, with record levels of investment, employment, and exports.”

Regarding the energy crisis, he noted that Factory Rescue Program, intended to support companies reducing their expenses related to energy consumption, helped the exports to rose by ten percent in the first 8 months of 2023. “Projects through the public investment support scheme have created 50% more jobs than previous year,” said Minister Szijjártó.

In this regard, he underlined the issue of Europe’s competitiveness in recent times. According to the Hungarian Foreign Affairs minister, the previous European model for growth collapsed, as it was based on a combination of advanced Western technologies and relatively cheap Eastern energy.
But the war in Ukraine “deprived us of the possibility to keep these connections. In this context, it was a crucial issue that currently Europe is to pay seven times more for natural gas than the USA, and three times more for electricity than China,” explained Hungarian minister Szijjártó.