Hungary is striving to have the best possible financial deal with Russia on building two new reactors at its sole nuclear power plant, National Economy Minister Mihály Varga has told HírTV, adding that the negotiations have not yet been finalised.
The Russian side will provide a loan of EUR 10 billion for the construction, and once the investment is completed and up and running, Hungary will pay off the loan over 21 years, Varga noted. Such a financial construction does not normally exist in the market, he said. Usually the repayment period would be 10 to 15 years. “That is why we had a great need for the Russian side to step in on the financing front.”
Asked about the interest to be paid to Russia over the entire 30-year period of the loan, Varga said there was no financial agreement as yet and the government would negotiate to ensure the cheapest possible construction. He dismissed speculation that giving the Paks expansion deal to Rosatom, the Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation, is somehow connected to Hungary’s long-term gas delivery contract with Russia.
Hungarian opposition parties have called on the government to publish the details of the deal. Socialist Party leader Attila Mesterházy said the agreement Prime Minister Viktor Orbán signed with Russia this month is tantamount to a “coup d’état” against his own people. The Socialists have called for an extraordinary session of Parliament to be convened over the matter.
LMP party co-leader Bernadett Szél said that if the government refuses the session, LMP would file a lawsuit to force the publication of the full text of the agreement. Szél described the deal with Moscow as a “decision which will influence the lives of even our grandchildren”, and called on opposition parties to support a proposal to hold a day of debate.
Parliament will discuss the intergovernmental contract in early February and vote on it, ruling Fidesz group leader Antal Rogán responded.
The European Commission has not said whether a tender must be held. “Experts will soon examine the agreement’s public-procurement aspects but for the time being we cannot give an opinion about whether these are in line with Union rules or not,” Sabine Berger, the commission’s spokeswoman for energy affairs, told journalists.
(Graphic courtesy of Index.hu journalist: Sándor Joób, graphics: Csaba Gyulai)
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