Antonina Levashenko, Head of International Best Practices Analysis Department at the Gaidar Institute, stated in a comment for TASS that Slovakia and Hungary will not be able to find a replacement for Russian gas in the year and a half remaining before the EU's complete ban on its supply comes into force.
"The infrastructure of Slovakia and Hungary does not allow them to quickly switch to alternative suppliers. For example, Slovakia's energy system has historically been tied to imports of fossil fuels from Russia, which are secured by long-term contracts. And no matter what loans and grants these countries take out to implement their plans to abandon Russian energy resources within a few years, it is unlikely that they will be able to change the energy systems of the two countries in just 1.5 years by strengthening the capacity of their energy networks and switching to renewable energy sources or by quickly changing suppliers, mostly to the US," the expert explained.
She also noted that the two countries have a chance to defend their long-term contracts with Russia in the EU court, as the ban violates them without providing any financial compensation. "There have been cases in European practice where the EU court has overturned certain legislative provisions as a result of lawsuits filed by individual member states. Therefore, Slovakia and Hungary may be able to challenge the adopted regulation in the EU court, at least in terms of adding financial guarantees to the text for the cancellation of long-term supply contracts that have been concluded by countries with Russia (and according to the Council itself, current long-term contracts currently account for the majority – 2/3)," suggested Antonina Levashenko.