Hungary announced on Monday that it will vote against the reform of the EU electricity market proposed by the European Commission, considering “unacceptable” the cancellation of the possibility to intervene in the setting of prices at the national level, reports the EFE agency, quoted by Agerpres.
Peter SzijjartoPhoto: Tomas Tkacik / Zuma Press / Profimedia
“Hungary will vote ‘No’ to the EC proposal on the reform of the electricity market, which would take away from member state governments the right to keep electricity prices at a low level,” announced the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, on Facebook. on the occasion of the statements made to the press in Luxembourg.
He accused Brussels of wanting to adjudge the right to decide when there is an energy crisis and whether to authorize states to introduce capped prices for certain energy sources.
Szijjarto reminded that Hungary has already won a case at the Court of Justice of the European Union, which established that Brussels “does not have the right to limit national competences in this field”.
The EC has urged energy ministers from the 27 member states to reach an agreement “as quickly as possible” on the reform of the electricity market, so that it is prepared to face possible crises in the future and allow the acceleration of investments in sources renewable.
The objective of the Energy Council session is to reach an agreement on the reform of the electricity market, which should later be negotiated in the European Parliament, a phase that will take place in the second part of the year, when Spain will take over the rotating presidency of the EU.
At the same time, Szijjarto predicts that there will be “big discussions” related to this topic.
In his opinion, the governments of the member countries are the ones who have the ability to find solutions to the difficulties and not the “extremely long bureaucratic procedures from Brussels”.