The Hungarian Foreign Ministry said that a number of European countries will not survive the winter without gas from the Russian Federation

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry said that a number of European countries will not survive the winter without gas from the Russian Federation



Hungary will not be able to survive the winter without Russian gas, its supplies to the country are preserved, however, a number of European countries will be unable to cope with the lack of energy imports from Russia, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó. About this he declared in an interview with RIA Novosti in New York, where the 77th session of the UN General Assembly is taking place.

“I can't speak for other countries, but in Hungary, if Russian gas supplies stop, we won't be able to cope with the winter. Now we can, because we have enough gas, but a number of other European countries cannot survive the winter without Russian gas. However, I don’t know what the Western European countries themselves think about this,” Szijjártó said.

The head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry criticized the assessments of European officials about the filling of gas storage facilities. In particular, by September, Germany, despite the shutdown of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, filled out gas storage facilities by 85%, and German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that the country's UGS facilities are being filled ahead of schedule.

According to Szijjártó, it is necessary to talk not about UGS capacity, but about gas consumption. The average occupancy in Europe, taking into account consumption, is 23%, in Hungary this figure reaches 41%, the minister said.

The European Union has already exceeded the plan for filling underground gas storages (UGS) by 80% by November 1, set by the European Commission: according to Gas Infrastructure Europe, as of September 17, European storage facilities were filled by 85.6%. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on September 14 that even taking into account the current decrease in dependence on Russian gas from 40% in January 2022 to 9% in September, UGSF reserves will not be enough to finally abandon gas from the Russian Federation.

Previously La Vanguardia newspaper sources reportedthat there will be enough gas in EU storage until February 2023 if the EU and those countries with which the bloc has a common supply network (including the UK) fail to reduce gas consumption by at least 10%.



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