Hungary’s position is legally sound, morally justified, and politically reasonable

Hungary's position is legally sound, morally justified, and politically reasonable, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote on X on Wednesday, responding to the remarks of President of the European Council António Costa delivered in the European Parliament.

The Portuguese politician rendered an account of the outcome of the latest EU summit at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels. At the end of the debate on this, in his closing remarks, Mr Costa said the European Commission and Europe have dealt with the issue of the security of energy supply from the very first moment. The financial and technical conditions for the repair of the damaged oil pipeline must be created, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy guaranteed the completion of the repair works in the coming weeks.

At the same time, the President of the European Council pointed out that every unit of gas bought from Russia meant that we were giving Russia money which it could use to continue to finance the war in Ukraine.

The President of the European Council additionally said this is politically unacceptable, and pointed out that no one had the right to hold hostage or blackmail the European Union or to use it as a means in an electoral campaign.

Costa argued that pursuant to the EU Treaties, unanimity did not vest anyone with a right of veto because the various provisions of the Treaties must be construed in their totality, and they imposed a duty of loyal cooperation on every Member State which meant that everyone was required to make an effort to reach an agreement.

The politician further said the Treaties prescribe loyal cooperation among the institutions of the EU as well; in December, the European Council adopted a unanimous decision, and asked the EP to grant its consent to the amendment of the budget. Once that has been granted, no one has the right to block a decision under way which only awaits to be formalised because the European Parliament has given its consent under the specific terms requested by the European Council.

"We have to act in good faith nonetheless, and it's not acting in good faith when conditions are imposed on us that depend not on a Member State or an institution of the EU, but rather on Ukraine's capacity to repair the pipeline and Russia's will to destroy it once again," Costa stressed. Russia has already attacked these pipelines 23 times, the President of the European Council added.

"We cannot in our decisions depend on decisions taken by Russia. We simply cannot accept that," Mr Costa stated.