Poland and Czechia join Hungary’s energy framework, with Black Sea gas on the agenda
Hungary’s energy minister announced the expansion on Sunday, and a separate round with Romania on Black Sea gas is due to continue in Bucharest in two weeks.
By
Juliette Carrel
In brief
- Poland and Czechia have joined a regional energy framework alongside Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Italy.
- The agreement was signed in Zagreb, where ministers discussed Black Sea gas and supply diversification.
- Hungary and Romania are due to resume talks in Bucharest in two weeks.
- The practical effect depends on projects and supply arrangements still to come.
Energy ministers meeting in Zagreb signed an agreement that brings Poland and Czechia into a regional energy cooperation expanded by Hungary, Daily News Hungary reports. Both countries thus become part of a broader coalition that also involves Italy and several Central and Southern European states.
What was signed in Zagreb
The newcomers enter a framework that already included Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Italy, and whose stated purpose is to improve the integration of energy markets. Poland and Czechia are the second and third Visegrád Group (V4) states in the arrangement alongside Hungary, so the initiative now spans a large part of the V4 grouping.
Hungary’s Minister of Economy and Energy, István Kapitány, announced the expansion on Sunday in a video posted on Facebook. According to him, the discussions centred on energy security, meaning access for the participating countries to more supply sources and more transport routes.
Beyond the coalition itself, the ministers in Zagreb also discussed access to natural gas from the Black Sea, the diversification of supply and the green energy investments Hungary has planned.
The announcement came from Kapitány himself rather than from a joint communiqué, and it was circulated on Facebook on a Sunday. The expansion adds two countries to a grouping that had previously counted four members, taking the number of states in the framework to six. Poland and Czechia sit alongside Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Italy in an arrangement whose declared aim is to bring energy markets closer together, a goal that Kapitány tied directly to the security of supply for every participant.
Black Sea gas and the Romanian track
Diversifying the routes by which gas is bought was a central subject. Hungary intends to deepen its working relationship with Croatia and Romania so that it can reach alternative supplies, including gas produced in the Black Sea region. Kapitány put the aim this way: “Our goal is for Hungary to obtain energy from an increasing number of sources, safely and at affordable prices,” he said.
Away from the main session in Zagreb, Kapitány held a separate discussion with Romania’s new energy minister. They reviewed what a more active Hungarian part in buying Black Sea gas could look like, as well as Hungary’s possible role in facilitating its transport to the region. Kapitány described the exchange as constructive.
The Romanian side of the talks concerned two distinct questions: purchasing gas produced in the Black Sea, and carrying it onward to the region. Kapitány spoke with a minister who has only recently taken up the energy portfolio in Bucharest, so the follow-up meeting in two weeks will be the second round between the two men. For Hungary, the stated ambition is a more active role in both buying and transport, instead of simply receiving supplies that others have arranged.
What remains open
Hungary’s large energy development projects, above all its drive to widen green energy capacity, were also on the Zagreb agenda. The report gives no further detail on those projects.
Production projects in the Black Sea are expected to make it a growing gas source for Central and South-Eastern Europe as they come online. Reaching that gas, though, hinges on available infrastructure, transport capacity and agreements among the countries concerned.
The report states that what the agreement achieves in practice will be determined by the projects and supply arrangements agreed later. It adds that closer cooperation with neighbours could help Hungary diversify its energy imports and lessen reliance on individual supply routes, a possibility rather than an outcome already secured.
Three conditions are named for Black Sea gas to reach Central and South-Eastern buyers: infrastructure that exists, transport capacity that can carry the volumes, and accords between the states along the way. Daily News Hungary presents these as the factors on which access depends, and ties the arrangement’s practical effect to the projects and supply deals that come after Zagreb.
Photo: Khwanchai Phanthong / Pexels
