Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said a joint Hungary-Slovenia-Serbia electricity exchange can start operating from the second half of the year, boosting the security of supply for all the countries involved.
The foreign minister said today’s agreement was “excellent news” at a joint press conference held with Serbian energy state secretary Veljko Kovačević and Slovenian energy minister Bojan Kumer, after the signing of the BlueSky Project. Security of supply, he said, would strengthen, making trade in electricity between the countries “fast and barrier-free”. The deal also creates a larger market with a favourable impact on prices, he added. He said the deal concerned cooperation between EU member states and an EU candidate country, “so we have taken another step in the direction of realising the energy integration” of the Western Balkans into the EU. The minister noted that a German-French energy exchange company backed the initiative, guaranteeing that the system would always be up to date. Hungary’s electricity supply, he said, was most efficiently served by nuclear energy, which is why the government had decided to expand capacities. He also referred to expanding solar power capacities, which he said had grown eightfold in the last five years. “Our goal is to create energy systems in the region that are as integrated as possible,” he said, adding the emphasis was on electricity supply, as demand was expected to increase by 50% in central Europe by 2030.