EU to suspend visa facilitation agreement with Russia, no blanket visa ban: Hungarian FM

The European Union will suspend an agreement with Russia that eases visa issuance but there will not be a blanket visa ban imposed as there is no unanimity on that, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook on Wednesday.

Szijjarto also announced that Hungary has signed a deal with Russia's Gazprom for additional gas shipments from Sept. 1.

He said Hungary, along with some other member states, opposed a Russian visa ban at a meeting of EU ministers in Prague.

"There won't be a general blanket visa ban imposed for Russian citizens," he said. "Several member states have raised their voice against this, including myself."

He said the agreement that eases visa issuance will be suspended with a qualified majority support. He did not say whether Hungary backed this measure.

Eastern and Nordic countries strongly back a tourism ban, while Germany and France have warned their peers it would be counter-productive, saying ordinary Russians should still be allowed access to the West.

Szijjarto said Gazprom would increase daily additional gas shipments on top of an existing long-term supply deal with Russia to a maximum 5.8 million cubic metres per day from Sept. 1 versus 2.6 million cubic metres per day delivered in August.

Gazprom started to increase gas supplies to Hungary earlier this month, adding to its previously agreed deliveries via the Turkstream pipeline.

Under a deal signed last year, before the start of the war in neighbouring Ukraine, Hungary received 3.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year via Bulgaria and Serbia under its long-term deal with Russia and a further 1 bcm via a pipeline from Austria. The agreement with Gazprom is for 15 years.