RT reported that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France) on October 9 that the EU's refusal to buy energy from Russia has paralyzed the bloc's economic growth.
Hungary is the country holding the six-month rotating presidency of the EU.
"EU productivity is growing more slowly than our competitors. Our share in world trade is falling," said Prime Minister Orban.
The Hungarian leader pointed out that EU businesses are facing electricity prices two to three times higher than in the US and gas prices four to five times higher.
According to Prime Minister Orban, half of European companies see energy costs as a major barrier to investment. In energy-intensive industries – which are vital to the EU economy – output has fallen by 10% to 15%.
“Moving away from Russian energy endangers the European Union's GDP growth, while significant financial resources must be reallocated to energy subsidies and the construction of the infrastructure needed to import LNG,” Orban noted.
The EU should have no illusions that a green transition will solve the problem, the Hungarian prime minister added, citing research that “the share of fossil fuels will not change significantly until 2030”.
The EU has said that eliminating its dependence on Russian energy is one of its key priorities after the conflict in Ukraine broke out in February 2022.
Sanctions on Russia and the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline in 2022 have sharply reduced Russian gas supplies to the EU, which has had to be replaced by more expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US and the Middle East.
Russian gas is expected to account for more than 16% of EU imports in the first quarter of 2024, down from 40% in 2021, according to the report. US LNG is 30-40% more expensive than Russian pipeline gas, according to Russian Energy Ministry estimates.
Before the conflict in Ukraine, Washington had been pressuring the EU for years to cut its dependence on Russian energy.
In June this year, the EU banned a number of activities involving LNG originating from Russia, including re-loading, ship-to-ship transfers and ship-to-shore transfers for the purpose of re-export to third countries via the EU.
Seaborne imports of Russian gas into the EU are still allowed via LNG terminals.
Former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said last month that the EU's global economic competitiveness had been significantly eroded by the loss of cheap energy from Russia.
