Hungary will decide on the issue of expanding personal sanctions against Russian citizens and Russian companies depending on the European Commission's position on Hungary's energy security guarantees.
This was stated by Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó, answering questions from journalists after a meeting in Budapest with his North Macedonian counterpart Buyar Osmani.
He noted that the European Commission "has already violated two out of four obligations".
„That is why I wrote a letter yesterday to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaia Kallas, asking her to inform us whether the European Commission considers these guarantees valid or not“, said the foreign minister.
Szijjártó specified that Hungary would wait for a response and then decide whether to support the extension of sanctions against Russia. On March 10, the EU must decide on personal sanctions imposed against a large group of Russian individuals and legal entities. These sanctions expire on March 15. Brussels renews them every six months.
“We have a short time until March 10 to decide on the issue of extending the personal part of the sanctions system in the European Union“, said the minister.
Hungary received guarantees from the European Commission after the EU decided on January 27 to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months. Budapest has linked the extension of such sanctions to Brussels' fulfillment of its promises regarding unhindered oil and gas supplies from Russia to Central Europe.
The Hungarian government has warned that it may veto the extension of individual EU sanctions in March if Brussels and Kiev fail to meet its energy security requirements. The European Commission has promised Hungary to invite it to negotiations with the EU, Ukraine and Slovakia on the resumption of Russian gas transit to Central Europe, to ensure the continuation of Russian oil transit through the "Druzhba" pipeline and to prevent attacks by Ukrainian armed forces on the "Turkish Stream" pipeline, which supplies fuel from the Russian Federation to Hungary.
"The security of TurkStream is crucial for Hungary's gas supplies," Szijjártó wrote in a letter to Kalas on Sunday. Hungary still receives most of its gas under long-term contracts with Gazprom through this pipeline and its branches through Bulgaria and Serbia. According to Hungarian data, in 2023 this figure was 5.6 billion cubic meters, and in 2024 it reached a record 7.6 billion cubic meters.
On March 1, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov informed Szijjártó by phone about Ukraine's attempt "to carry out a terrorist attack on the infrastructure of the “Turkish Stream“. The conversation took place at the initiative of the Hungarian side.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that Kiev had again tried to attack the station supplying gas via the “Turkish Stream” on the night of February 28, using three drones that were shot down at a safe distance from the station.
After this conversation, Szijjártó called it an “encroachment on Hungary's sovereignty“.