Members of the European Parliament attend the opening session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on 12 December, 2022. AFP File
New Delhi: A top Hungarian official has said that the new EU Parliament resolution calling for more Western arms for Ukraine and a full energy embargo on Russia will only add fuel to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev and prove detrimental to the European economy.
In a Facebook post Csaba Domotor, the secretary of state in the Hungarian prime minister’s office, blasted the resolution, noting that it includes two “most serious” points.
The first provision calling for military aid to Ukraine to be increased and accelerated is anything but a call for peace.
“Rather, it is a big step towards military escalation,” he said.
Domotor also pointed out that an embargo on fossil fuels and uranium from Russia would essentially mean a complete ban on imports of gas and nuclear fuel from the country.
Should the European Parliament impose these restrictions, they would “not only support the previous sanctions, but also inflation,” which is largely attributable to skyrocketing energy prices, the official said.
“If a total embargo is announced, it is a guarantee of further price increases. I think this is going in a very bad direction,” Domotor stressed.
A non-binding resolution urging member states to swiftly enact a tenth set of measures against Moscow was agreed by the bloc’s legislature last week.
Among the measures being proposed are an embargo on imports of fossil fuels and uranium from Russia, further arms shipments to Ukraine, and for the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines to “be completely abandoned.” The EU Parliament is also seeking to target oil company Lukoil and Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom.
Hungary, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy, has long been critical of the sanctions the West has imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. It has argued that the restrictions have adversely impacted the EU economy but failed to meaningfully weaken Russia.
Budapest has also refrained from supplying Ukraine with arms while signaling last month that it would veto any EU sanctions targeting Russian nuclear energy.
With inputs from agencies
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