Orbán: Despite EC probe, Hungary will stick to Paks deal

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán speaking on the radio today. (Photo: MTI/Zoltán Máthé)

“We will keep moving forward”, as Paks is needed to provide inexpensive energy, Orbán said in his regular fortnightly interview on state-owned Kossuth radio.

The European Commission announced yesterday that it started an infringement procedure to investigate Hungaryʼs contract to have Russia’s Rosatom upgrade the nuclear plant. The contract was awarded without a tender, and the EC claims this runs counter to European Union regulations on public procurement.

Orbán said Brussels is “once again” using “double standards”, as nowhere in Europe have tenders been called for recent nuclear energy investments. He added that the EC is defending the interests of European companies interested in the $10-billion-plus project, Hungarian news agency MTI reported. “Where thereʼs meat, there are flies”, Orbán was quoted as saying.

The prime minister also used his talk this morning to reiterate his claim that the European Union’s compulsory quota system on refugee distribution “needs to be attacked … because the quota system would mean the spread of terrorism in Europe”. He said it is the interest of the basic security of Hungarians to block the quota system, so the government will attack the decision in the European Court.

Linking refugees and terror

Although Orbán said Hungary is not yet a direct target of terrorist acts – as intelligence services have not identified players who would want to hurt Hungarians – in the wake of the Paris terror acts “our way of thinking needs to be changed”. Orbán asked: “Which one is the better solution: stopping the masses of migrants or letting such terror acts happen?”

The prime minister also said that radicalization of Europe is in no one’s interest. Out of ten Hungarians, nine believe that “two times two equals four”, and these people say that the consequence of involvement in Syria are terror acts, Orbán said. He added that European leaders not only let masses of migrants into Europe without checking, but also gave them transport.

Commenting on a recent Constitutional Court decision nullifying parts of legislation on the manner for compensating investors of failed brokerage Quaestor, Orbán said lawmakers would now have to replace “general compensation” for the lost savings with a system of “precisely calculated compensation”, MTI reported.