Hungary and Slovenia connected their electricity grids
At the handover ceremony of the Cirkocve-Pince electricity transmission line in Cirkovce, Slovenia, the Prime Minister emphasized, among other things, that the peoples living in the former Yugoslav territory and the Hungarians were cut off from each other. For this reason, the Hungarians built all relations in an East-West context, be it gas, oil, or electricity.
This disunity remained even after the end of Yugoslavia, and Hungary’s neighbor Slovenia was the only one with which neither the gas, nor the oil, nor the electricity system was connected until now. Viktor Orbán recalled: in 1999, the Hungarian government led by him at the time lowered the Hungarian border and connected the electricity line to the Croatian system.
He thanked the Slovenian governments who participated in the construction of the transmission line, as well as the Slovenian people who persevered and also felt the importance of the north-south connection of the electricity system. According to the prime minister, the Hungarians have a clear task:
everything must be done in order to establish the other missing connections between Slovenia and Hungary.
He emphasized: he believes that Central Europe, to which we all belong, has a bright future ahead of it. People live here, they are extremely talented, they are able and able to work hard, they are willing to take risks, they love their country and their families, and this gives us such energy that makes us successful, he said. He emphasized: although we speak different languages, the life instincts connect us. If the politicians understand this, “and obey these popular instincts well”, then Central Europe can become a winner of history instead of a loser, if it can work on its disadvantages and we can transform it into the happiest, most prosperous and safest region in Europe, he said.
At the press conference following the handover ceremony, Viktor Orbán announced:
Europe and Hungary face three risks: security, economic and energy supply.
In uncertain times, good neighborly relations become more valuable, so he called it a great value and to be appreciated that Hungary and Slovenia have good relations with each other. Speaking about this, he emphasized: Hungary also cooperates with Slovenia in the performance of airspace policing tasks within the framework of NATO. the company’s economic relations are excellent, Slovenian-to-Hungarian turnover has also increased, there are more investments between the two countries and a common fund for border developments.
The two countries are also linked by the fact that the minority communities living in their countries are considered valuable – Viktor Orbán to each other. He indicated: since the Fidesz-KDNP government has been in power, the support of the Slovenian community living in Hungary has increased sixfold, and Slovenia also considers the Hungarians living in the country valuable. Answering a journalist’s question, Viktor Orbán said: the aim of the Serbian-Austrian-Hungarian cooperation is to jointly protect borders against migration, and they are happy to receive help from other countries, even Slovenia, in order to better protect Europe’s external borders, and to effectively move border control as far south as possible.
Viktor Orbán highlighted the plans for the Slovenian-Hungarian natural gas pipeline:
there is agreement that the two countries should be connected by a gas pipeline.
The Hungarian side is thinking about a pipeline with a larger diameter, while Slovenia is thinking about a medium or smaller volume, the capacity of which would be increased later. According to Viktor Orbán, this can be overcome, and a smaller volume start is also suitable for the Hungarian side.
On energy issues, Viktor Orbán said: Hungary has three options if it wants to further increase its independence from Russian energy sources in the direction of Romania, Croatia and Slovenia. Hungary is interested in all three directions, because it wants to eliminate dependence so that there are as many choices as possible. He added:
is preparing for pragmatic cooperation with his Slovenian colleague.
Later, in response to a question about stock market prices, he also spoke about the fact that, although Hungary, unlike Slovenia, imports energy largely from Russia, the development of the stock market price also determines the Hungarian price level through the contract with the Russians.
Opening image: MTI/Prime Minister’s Press Office/Zoltán Fischer