Hungary and Russia will change the agreements on the construction of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant against the backdrop of sanctions

Hungary has agreed with Russia to amend contracts for the construction and financing of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant in order to avoid sanctions, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said. The agreement was reached following a meeting between Mr. Szijjarto and Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev.

In a video message on Facebook (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), the minister recalled that the agreements on Russian investments in the construction of Paks-2 were signed more than nine years ago. In his opinion, since that time “the life and technological situation has changed so much” that it became necessary to amend the concluded contracts.

“Sanctions are another factor in complicating the situation, therefore, we had to look for a legal basis in order to amend existing contracts and ensure the possibility of building a nuclear power plant,” said Mr. Szijjártó (quoted from Hirado).

The Foreign Minister said that as soon as the amendments to the agreements are adopted, Hungary will immediately submit them for approval to the European Commission. “We hope that the European Commission does not want to jeopardize the long-term security of the Hungarian energy supply,” Mr. Szijjártó said.

Earlier today, April 11, Rosatom informed about the meeting in Moscow between the head of the company, Alexei Likhachev, and the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, Peter Szijjártó. They discussed steps to implement the construction of the Paks-2 NPP, as well as other issues of cooperation in the nuclear sector.

In February, the European Parliament accepted an unenforceable resolution calling for the expulsion of Rosatom from the European Union and for refusing to import uranium from Russia. February 24, USA introduced restrictions against the operating organization of Zaporozhye NPP and its general director, Great Britain – against Rosatom and its leadership.

On February 25, the EU announced new restrictions against Russia, but the package did not include sanctions against the nuclear sector of the Russian Federation. Poland agreed sanctions, provided that the next package of restrictions will affect Russia’s nuclear power industry. Hungarian Foreign Minister declaredthat the country will never support sanctions against Russia’s nuclear power industry.

Erdni Kagaltynov