Viktor Orbán’s statement on Facebook following a meeting of the European Council
25 March 2022, Brussels

It is now 1.30 a.m. After the NATO summit we continued with a meeting of the EU heads of state and government. There, too, the topic was the Ukrainian-Russian war. Some countries once more raised the issue of extending sanctions to energy: to coal, gas and oil. Indeed the Ukrainian president himself, who took part in the meeting by video link, also asked us to do that. We gave this proposal our consideration and then rejected it, given that 85 per cent of Hungary’s gas and more than 60 per cent of its oil comes from Russia. Such a sanction would mean that in a matter of seconds the Hungarian economy would slow down, and then stop. This cannot be accepted: it runs counter to the interests of the Hungarian people; and indeed it would mean that in reality we would be forced to pay the price of war. Fortunately we are not the only ones in this situation, and some other countries have put forward the same argument. Therefore common sense has prevailed, and gas and oil will continue to flow to Hungary. Tomorrow morning we will continue our work, we will discuss the issue of soaring energy prices, and we will discuss what needs to be done in Brussels in order to bring energy prices down.