UNITED NATIONS, September 24. /TASS/. The actions of several European institutions hinder Hungary's cooperation with Rosatom on the Paks nuclear power plant (NPP), Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Szijjarto said in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
"When the European Union passed the first sanction package, it was written in the sanction package the regulation, that the peaceful use of nuclear energy is not affected by the sanction regime. So there's a European regulation about the fact that nuclear energy is not under sanction regime and we stick to it. For us energy is a red line when it comes to sanctions," he said.
According to Szijjarto, "Of course, we experience some European institutions, some national regulators and some banks overperforming in this regard and trying to put burdens ahead of this project, which we reject, because overperforming the sanctions, let's put it this way, is an attack on our national sovereignty because increasing the nuclear capacity for us is a matter of sovereignty".
Currently, preparations are underway for the construction of two new power units under the Rosatom project at the Paks nuclear power plant, built about 100 km south of Budapest. Szijjarto said earlier, Moscow confirmed its readiness to finance this project, which is estimated at 12.5 bln euro and which from the very beginning was supposed to be carried out by 80% at the expense of a Russian loan.