Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has denounced Germany for preventing the Siemens conglomerate from delivering a crucial control system needed for Hungary’s Paks-II nuclear power plant being built by Russia’s nuclear energy firm Rosatom. A German-French consortium is responsible for providing the control system and France’s Framatome, which partners with Siemens, has already approved it, but Germany has not, reneging on a signed contract.
Hungary’s refusal to bend to European Union demands that it sanction Russia and reduce its reliance on Russian energy sources has infuriated the pro-war fanatics in Brussels and in Berlin.
Following a Feb. 15 meeting in Paris with Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher, Szijjarto emphasized that the Paks-II nuclear plant is essential to Hungary’s long-term energy security and that if Germany continues to block Siemens from fulfilling its contractual obligations, it should be seen as an “attack on our sovereignty, as security of energy supply is a matter of national sovereignty.” Moreover, each nation has the right to determine its own energy mix, Nuclear Energy International reported him saying.
He pointedly added that Germany’s Economics Minister Robert Habeck, and Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock, both belonging to the Malthusian, pro-war Green Party, “have no legal basis whatsoever to block this delivery and jeopardize Hungary’s future energy security.”
Szijjarto praised France for maintaining a “completely rational, pragmatic approach to this issue, not a political or ideological approach, but one based on physical reality.” The physical reality, he said, “is that nuclear energy is a sustainable, cheap, environmentally friendly and efficient way of producing energy. It also provides a degree of security in the current highly volatile international energy market environment with unreasonably high prices.”
He further explained that neither Hungary nor France believes sanctioning nuclear cooperation with Russia is beneficial. “Together we fought hard for the EU to classify nuclear energy as sustainable and together we are fighting against discrimination against nuclear energy,” he said. “We were successful, and today we agreed to maintain this strategic cooperation in the field of nuclear energy in the next period as well,” Nuclear Energy International quoted him as saying. (https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newshungary-and-france-urge-germany-to-release-equipment-for-paks-npp-10602517)
