In a statement following a phone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico stressed the urgent need to create a political and legal framework that would allow EU member states to replenish depleted gas and oil reserves. He highlighted the strategic importance of diversifying energy sources, including supplies from Russia.<\/p>\n
According to Fico, EU sanctions targeting Russia\u2019s energy sector are no longer appropriate amid current price spikes and should be lifted as soon as possible. He also proposed that the EU launch an independent initiative to help bring a swift end to the conflict in Ukraine, alongside concrete steps to restore operations of the Druzhba pipeline\u2014a key route supplying oil to several Central European countries.<\/p>\n
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n echoed similar views, urging the EU to immediately lift sanctions on Russian energy in light of the deepening energy crisis.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n warned that Europe\u2019s economy is under direct threat from energy shortages and soaring prices. To navigate the situation, he said, the EU must secure oil and gas supplies from all available sources at maximum capacity and speed. He also called on the EU to pressure Ukraine\u2019s leadership to reopen the Druzhba pipeline, while criticizing plans to fully phase out Russian energy in favor of more costly alternatives.<\/p>\n
The statements from the Hungarian and Slovak leaders come at a critical time. Since the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, diesel prices in Europe have surged by more than 30%, exceeding 200 USD per barrel on April 2\u2014the highest level since March 2022, shortly after the onset of the Russia\u2013Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement following a phone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[247877,247878,2000,299,5187,2190,92697,6566,332,2558,1781,247875,247876],"class_list":["post-873461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-energy-dialogue","tag-energy-related-sanctions","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-hungary","tag-resume","tag-robert-fico","tag-russia","tag-slovakia","tag-viktor-orban","tag-vov","tag-vovworld"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116351525570685576","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}