“Europe’s energy crisis has reached Hungarian families. Unfortunately, it seems that starting next month, those households using more energy than the average will have to pay more,” said Oliver Hortay in a video posted on his social media page.
The Head of Energy and Climate Policy Division at the Századvég Foundation continued:
In other European countries however, masses of families are at risk of not even having enough energy; in other words, they may not be able to enjoy the warmth of their own homes.
“The situation is dire, let’s establish the three essential things for a solution. First of all, western politicians must change their communication styles. The price increases since the outbreak of the war can be largely attributed to their threatening statements, not necessarily concrete events,” explained the expert.
“Pro-sanctions politicians have been mentioning the gas embargo since the beginning of March, causing serious tensions on the market. Aside from this, Russia cut back its deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline because Germany announced it would not buy any more energy from Moscow after 2024. Due to maintenance on the pipeline, there are currently no transports at all and Berlin has been preparing the market for this situation to remain,” said Oliver Hortay. He believes prices are being pushed up by fear, and political communications are only feeding into this.
Eliminating flawed communication would also stabilize prices.
“The second task is to permanently forget about the sanctions that go against the interests of the European community and beyond the scope of the war. Today we are at the point that peace will not solve the energy crisis on its own because it would not be enough to resolve certain sanctions,” said the expert.
He emphasized that in addition to the accepted rules, ending the oil embargo could only happen under entirely unrealistic conditions. However, at this point, it has been proven that without Russian energy, Europe may become non-functioning in the near future.
Thus, not only must peace be reached now, but also the counterproductive system of sanctions criteria must be re-evaluated. In regard to even more sanctions on energy sanctions – this should not even come into question.
“And finally, though this receives less attention, the energy crisis has surpassed the war. The European energy market has struggled with infrastructural issues regardless of the conflicts; this is mainly due to Brussels’ flawed energy policies. In order to completely resolve the current situation, it will be absolutely necessary to reform the previous EU aspirations. It is unacceptable that EU policy is based on artificially raising prices and reducing the community’s reliable production capacities. Instead of this, we must strive for reliable and affordable energy,” added Oliver Hortay.
So, though the situation is serious, it is not hopeless. To reach a solution however, Western politicians must change their approach. It would be good to do this before angry European masses force them to.
