Budapest: Regardless of sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU), Hungary has announced plans to build a pipeline to supply Russian gas to Serbia. Hungary said the decision was made to overcome the sanctions imposed on Croatia. Meanwhile, this decision of Hungary, a partner country of Russia, is seen as a challenge to the European Union.

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Most of Serbia’s fuel supplies come via Croatia and the Adriatic Sea. But over the past few months, the European Union has progressively imposed sanctions on individuals and projects linked to Russia, which includes the Russian fuel pipeline coming to Serbia from Croatia. Currently, Serbia has just enough fuel reserves to last for two months. It has created a fuel crisis in Serbia, like other European countries.

The European Union has excluded the Druzhba pipeline or Friendship Pipeline, which reaches Hungary through Ukraine, from these sanctions. Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic are getting fuel supply through this pipeline; hence they are not experiencing a fuel crisis like other European countries. President Viktor Orban has already announced that Hungary has enough natural gas reserves to last at least five to six months.

Under such circumstances, Hungary announced the construction of a pipeline to supply Russian fuel to Serbia. Zoltan Kovach, the spokesperson of the Hungarian government, shared this information on social media. Kovach claimed that this new pipeline would provide cheap fuel to Serbia. Last week Hungarian President Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met in Budapest. During this meeting, a consensus was claimed to have been reached between the two leaders regarding the fuel pipeline.

Serbia is preparing to become a member of the EU. Like Ukraine and Turkey, Serbia has also initiated efforts to become a member state of the EU. This process was accelerated last year. But the sanctions imposed by the European Union after the Russia-Ukraine conflict have hit countries like Serbia, which depend on Russian fuel, the most. The EU is threatening to increase sanctions against Russia further. Therefore, it is feared that the fuel crisis faced by the European countries will not ease soon. At the same time, Hungary is building a pipeline to supply Russian fuel to Serbia, regardless of the sanctions of the European Union. This cooperation in Hungary-Serbia is proving to be a challenge to the Union. A reaction to this development is still expected from the EU.