OFIA: Bulgaria scrapped on Monday a tax on the transit of Russian gas through its territory after Hungary threatened to veto the country’s long-time bid to join the Schengen free-travel zone.
In a hasty vote, lawmakers unanimously backed a proposal to abandon the exceptional tax of 20 leva (10 euros) per megawatt hour (MWh) for Russian gas coming from the TurkStream gas pipeline that it channelled to Hungary and Serbia.
The measure was approved on October 13 and aimed to “reduce the profits” of Gazprom but it turned out difficult to enforce as the Russian gas giant never paid any sum for the volumes it transited. Both Budapest and Belgrade, still heavily dependent on Russian energy sources and keen to maintain their good ties with the Kremlin, had slammed the exceptional tariff as “a hostile move” that jeopardized their energy security.
Over the weekend, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto threatened to veto Bulgaria’s bid to join Schengen if the country continues to maintain the tax that he said was “punitive.”
Hungary was ready to lift the veto as soon as tax is abolished, Szijjarto said.
“I’ve told (Hungarian PM) Victor Orban several times that this tax is not aimed against Hungary. They probably have some suspicions or are using it as an excuse (to block us),” Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov told Nova television in an interview Sunday.
“It is important to remove this hindrance and to know that with Hungary we should not have problems for Schengen,” he however added.
Bulgaria and neighbouring Romania joined the EU in 2007 but their bid to join the free travel zone met with opposition from member states over the years. Of the remaining two reluctant countries that opposed Bulgaria’s accession last year, the Netherlands decided on Friday that Sofia now fulfilled the conditions and Austria has also softened it opposition recently.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.