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Hungary declares opposition to Russian gas price cap at meeting of EU energy ministers

Peter Szijjarto stressed that a proposed European price cap on Russian gas goes against European and Hungarian interests

VIENNA, September 9. /TASS/. At a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels attended by Budapest’s top diplomat, Hungary announced that it was against the introduction of a price cap on Russian gas, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on Friday.

"The price cap [on Russian gas] is a hidden energy sanction. We made it clear that we do not want to negotiate energy sanctions," Szijjarto wrote on his social media page.

Earlier, on his way to the meeting in Brussels, Szijjarto said that "if price restrictions were to be imposed on Russian gas, that would evidently lead to an immediate cutoff of Russian gas supplies."

"It does not take a Nobel Prize to recognize that," he quipped.

The minister stressed that a proposed European price cap on Russian gas goes against European and Hungarian interests.

European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen announced at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday that she had decided to submit a proposal to set a price ceiling for Russian gas for consideration by the EU Council. According to Politico, the European Commission wants to cap the price for Russian gas in the European Union at 50 euro per megawatt-hour, or roughly 520 euro per 1,000 cubic meters of gas.

EU energy ministers considered this proposal at a meeting in Brussels, which was convened on Friday due to the dire situation with energy resources. The Hungarian government does not have the post of Energy Minister, and therefore Szijjarto is representing Hungary at this meeting.

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