Szijjártó calls on European Commission's help as Croatia plans to increase transit fee on oil pipeline

Croatia plans to increase the transit fee on the Adria oil pipeline by two and a half times from 2023, which is an abuse of Croatia's monopoly according to the Hungarian government, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told Spirit FM. The Hungarian Foreign Minister also announced that the government is urging the European Commission to intervene in relation to Croatia's planned move.

Szijjártó said that as Hungary does not produce significant quantities of natural gas and oil, we basically depend on imports for 80-90 percent of our needs, so cooperation with the outside world is critical for the country in terms of energy supply. If the Friendship pipeline is shut down because of the war in Ukraine, the Adriatic pipeline from Croatia will become Hungary's only import route. The problem is that the Adriatic pipeline has less capacity than the combined consumption of Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, he said.

Szijjártó argued that the European Commission should put pressure on the Croats to expand capacity and that increasing the transit fees in a situation like the current one should be rejected at the European level, as it is clearly an "abuse of the situation brought on by the war". The minister also discussed this with MOL CEO Zsolt Hernádi on Thursday.