The European Union should reconsider sanctions against Russia as they cause higher energy prices and undermine the competitiveness of European countries, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.
Viktor Orban recalled that the EU countries adopted at an informal summit in Budapest on 8 November the ‘Declaration on European Competitiveness’. The document is aimed at reducing the prices of oil, gas and electricity.
‘Energy prices should be reduced by all available means. This means that sanctions (against Russia – ed.) should be revised, because with the current sanctions policy, energy prices will not go down,’ the head of the Hungarian government said on Kossuth radio station.
The prime minister noted that industrial companies in the EU countries pay several times more for gas and electricity than their main competitors in the United States and China. In his opinion, this undermines the competitiveness of the EU countries.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was going through a difficult period in Russian history. He emphasised that in the emerging conditions of the new global reality, ‘someone is striving’ to preserve its fading hegemony through Russia.
