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.