Baku, Azerbaijan, April 4. Hungary continues to
actively support the further capacity expansion of the Southern Gas
Corridor, a key project for the diversification of Europe’s natural
gas supply routes and sources, State Secretary of Hungarian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) Boglárka Illés said in
an exclusive interview with Trend on the sidelines of the 11th Southern Gas
Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and the 3rd Green
Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting in Baku.
“Our participation in the work of the Advisory Board of the
Southern Gas Corridor also indicates that we consider it a
strategic interest to facilitate energy cooperation between the
countries of the Caucasus and Europe. For us diversification
doesn’t mean that there would be a replacement of the current
supply sources with other ones. For us diversification means that
we add new sources to our energy mix. It is quite simple: the more
gas sources and routes we have access to, the stronger security of
supply we have. Therefore, Azerbaijan is a very important partner
of cooperation. In 2023, 100 million cubic metres of Azerbaijani
natural gas was available to Hungary with the possibility of import
further volumes in the future. From corporate aspects, we propose
and support the further strengthening of cooperation between SOCAR
and MVM,” she said.
Illés pointed out that Hungary has always supported the
construction and capacity expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor,
which is a key project not only for Hungary or the Central and
Eastern European region, but also for the rest of Europe.
“For us what it is of key importance that the capacity of the
South-East European gas network gets increased. There are
bottlenecks that should be eliminated, the capacities of some
pipelines and interconnectors should be increased. The bigger
capacity delivery routes have, the bigger hope we have to get
access to new sources of energy. We have turned to the European
Commission to provide targeted funding for specific capacity
development in South-Eastern Europe multiple times. However, while
the European Commission is putting pressure on us to diversify
sources, they are not ready to provide financing for the capacity
increase of the South-East European infrastructure,” noted the
state secretary.
Green Energy Corridor Project
Illés noted that the Green Energy Corridor Project is crucial in
order to guarantee stable, sustainable and carbon neutral new
electricity import sources for Europe.
“It will also enable that we successfully implement further
renewable energy development projects, carry out research and
development activities in the field of hydrogen, organize green
energy exchange and develop connectivity between the Caspian and
Black Sea and European regions. Taking into account that the Green
Energy Corridor Project can significantly contribute to EU energy
diversification strategies with channeling external green energy
sources to the EU, it is of crucial importance that the EU provides
tangible support for the project,” she said.
The state secretary recalled that the last ministerial meeting
held in Budapest on the 10th of March 2025 was another milestone in
the Project.
“The recently established JV called the Green Energy Corridor
Power Company will take over the operative tasks of the Feasibility
Study and in the last quarter of this year a political decision can
be made regarding the further development of the Project. We also
agreed on the operative mechanism of Bulgaria’s formal inclusion in
the Project. The Project could be included in the PMI/PCI list in
2027 at the earliest, provided that it is included in the ENTSO-E
Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP) for 2026. To this end,
between 1 April and 9 May 2025 Romania’s Transelectrica, in
cooperation with the JV, will submit the planned infrastructure
elements of the Project to ENTSO-E,” she concluded.