Hungary and Slovakia have been accused of trying to benefit from cheap Russian oil despite the alternatives.
Ukrainian sanctions on Russian oil have not impeded energy flows to Hungary, Brussels said Monday, refuting Budapest’s claims of an impending fuel shortage.
Hungary has been warning for weeks of a looming energy crisis after recent Ukrainian penalties blocked Rusian energy giant Lukoil’s products from crossing its territory. Slovakia also claimed it would soon face shortages.
But on Monday, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said Hungary was still getting the same amount of fuel as it did before the penalties, calling on both it and Slovakia to provide more information if they wanted EU assistance.
“So far, we have not observed any decrease in the flows of oil to Hungary since the implementation of the Ukrainian sanctions,” said Olof Gill, the Commission’s trade spokesperson, responding to a query from POLITICO.
The oil dispute stretches back to June, when Ukraine imposed the Lukoil sanctions. Several weeks later, Hungary and Slovakia, which still import Russian oil under an EU sanctions exemption granted to the landlocked countries, demanded the EU intervene and force Kyiv to back down.
However, critics — including fellow EU members — said the two countries were overstating the potential impact of the sanctions. Many also noted that the sanctions exemption allowing them to buy Russian oil was always intended to be temporary.
Despite the war raging in neighboring Ukraine, Hungary has actually increased imports of cheap Russian fuel and has struck new natural gas deals with Moscow.
According to Gill, the Commission has requested more information from Budapest and Bratislava about the nature of their concerns.
“The replies to the questions are, in our assessment, so far incomplete and not detailed enough,” Gill said. “More detailed answers are still required to conclude the Commission’s analysis … and more analysis is still required to assess the need for any specific steps by the Commission.”
Speaking last week, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó claimed Ukraine was threatening his country’s energy security and holding up a third of the supplies it intends to import. Budapest has not provided any proof of disruption to deliveries.
The Hungarian side — which enjoys some of the lowest fuel prices on the continent even as its neighbors look to diversify away from Russia — has proposed a deal that would see a Hungarian firm take ownership of the oil before it enters Ukraine, potentially allowing it to circumvent the Lukoil sanctions and resolve the standoff.