Orbán in preparatory talks for EU summit

The European Council will meet to discuss the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, economic issues and foreign relations on Thursday and Friday. Monday’s video call was also joined by Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, Bertalan Havasi said.

Orbán discussed in detail the issues on the summit’s agenda in a radio interview on Friday, Havasi noted. The prime minister said Brussels had “messed up” sanctions and they were not coupled with proposals for price cuts, resulting in sanctions-fuelled inflation, with Hungary having to pay extra for energy as a result of the sanctions.

Hungary has achieved exemption from all sanctions that affect its energy market negatively but the problem remains that since the country is part of a common European market, it is still affected by the high energy prices, he said.

The final solution to combat high energy prices would be if the European Union dropped its sanctions policy, Orbán said. However, “a great struggle” would be needed for this to happen, he added.

Before the video call, Orbán received European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton at his office in the Castle District, Havasi said.