BUDAPEST, May 27. /TASS/. Budapest will not support the 14th package of the European Union’s sanctions against Russia as currently worded as it contradicts Hungary’s interests in the energy area, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto who took part in the meeting with colleagues from EU countries in Brussels, said.

"The 14th package of sanctions was one of the most important points of today’s debates," he noted. "As currently worded it fully contradicts Hungary’s economic interests and it would most likely threaten Hungary’s energy security. This is why the Hungarian government will not accept this package of sanctions in its present form," the minister said at a meeting with Hungarian reporters in Brussels broadcast by the M1 TV channel.

The suggested measures "will hit hard" agriculture and food supplies from Hungary to Russia, threaten the ways of payment for supplies of Russian energy resources, as well as slow down and complicate financing of the construction of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant (NPP) designed by Rosatom, the minister said, adding that this all poses risks to the country’s sovereignty.

"Hungary will definitely not vote for the 14th package of sanctions in its present form as it flatly contradicts our economic interests and threatens energy security," he stressed.

In general, Budapest is against using such punitive measures and it considers Brussel’s sanctions policy disastrous, Szijjarto said. "Thirteen packages of sanctions that we have adopted by now, have failed, and each of us has caused far less damage to the Russian economy than to the European economy," he said.