“The issue of energy supply security is neither ideological nor political, it is purely a physical one. There are four very important conditions on the basis of which we, Europeans, can guarantee a secure supply of energy resources,” said Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjarto at the SPIEF session “Energy for the 21st Century: Challenges of Today as Opportunities for Tomorrow”, moderated by Sergey Brilev, President of the Global Energy Association.
“The first is diversification. That’s the word I hear the most during disputes about the security of energy supplies to Europe. But diversification means the largest number of routes and the largest number of suppliers, it does not mean replacing one supplier with another, moreover, it does not mean replacing reliable suppliers with whom we have had long experience with others,” he said.
“Second. When talking about energy security, we need to prepare for the winter very carefully and start this preparation as soon as possible. Preparation for the next season 2023-2024 will be much more difficult, much more than preparations for the 2022-2023 winter, because until September last year, Russian gas supplies to Europe were at a fairly significant level. Now it is practically “zero”, except for our deliveries. Moreover, no one can guarantee that the next winter will be as mild and warm as before. Hungary has already filled its UGS facilities by 37% of the annual requirement, but on average in Europe, this figure is 21%,” the minister said.
“Third. No country should benefit from crisis situations only because it is a transit country,” the minister added. For example, it is unacceptable when operators of the main gas pipelines simultaneously raise tariffs for gas transit supplies.
“Fourth. Avoidance of nuclear energy phase-out. There were ideological wars against nuclear energy in Europe, especially after Germany had closed its nuclear plants. It is strange that some countries tell the others what to do. For us, nuclear energy is a guarantee of long-term energy supplies. We have 40 years of experience in NPPs operation. As a result, we know that nuclear generation is safe, stable and cheap energy. This is the only way for us to keep energy supplies at a safe level. RES, such as wind or solar, are good, but the volume is what really matters. Nuclear energy means large volumes of electricity. We are implementing big new projects with Rosatom, which should be completed in 2030. If that happens, we avoid the annual emission of 70 million tons of CO2,” P. Szijjártó added.
