Another turn of the tide for the Bős-Nagymaros hydropower plant?

The news was reported by Telex, citing Slovakian Hungarian site Paraméter.sk, adding that the Slovak party believes that the agreement will disproportionately benefit Hungary while imposing disadvantageous conditions on Slovakia. Although the Democrats are currently represented in the Slovak parliament by only one independent MP, the publication of the documents has caused a major political stir. The party has called on the Fico government to act immediately and stop the negotiations before Slovakia is put at a long-term disadvantage.

According to the liberal-conservative, pro-EU and pro-NATO Democrats,

the draft would allow Hungary to access the Bős/Gabčíkovo hydropower plant's electricity production at cost price for decades.

The creation of the Nagymaros dam would, among other things, make it possible to build a 1200 MW pumped storage reservoir on the top of the Pilismarót hill, mainly to store the surplus electricity from the Paks nuclear power plant units 5 and 6 in the valley - possibly with Slovakian contribution, despite the fact that the facility would primarily serve Hungarian energy interests.

According to the report, the party's environmental expert, Michal Kiča, believes that Slovakia would take on all the costs and risks of an investment that its own energy system does not need. According to Kiča, the agreement being drawn up could be “unbreakable” and is being done in secret, without any social or professional debate.

On Tuesday, Népszava reported that the Hungarian and Slovak governments are negotiating quietly. According to the newspaper, “the agreement would legalise the unilateral diversion of the Danube, which was declared contrary to international law in the 1997 Hague ruling, and Hungary would contribute to the complete renovation of the Bős/Gabčíkovo power plant turbine park, which has now become a matter of urgency” - meaning that the Hungarian side would assume a serious obligation and the Slovakian move, which diverted a large part of the Danube's water flow 30 years ago, would be given a legal backing.

According to Népszava, the Orbán cabinet is now willing to compromise on further Hungarian interests, primarily to maintain good relations with the Fico government, as a kind of reconciliation gift and also as a bargaining chip in certain Brussels deals if the Slovak Prime Minister votes or vetoes with Hungary. There is, of course, a Hungarian angle: in fact the Hungarian energy lobby has always preferred Nagymaros and bringing the energy production to the peak (i.e. the alternate swelling and lowering of the Danube to optimise power generation) - for the Slovaks, Bős/Gabčíkovo is perfectly fine in its current form - and in the current energy-scarce times this desire has clearly only increased.

The protests against the Bős-Nagymaros hydropower plant in the late 1980s were among the first signs of the coming regime change and the Hungarian civil movement, and reached their peak when the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) showed in a study that

the alternate swelling and lowering of the Danube to optimise power generation would cause ecological damage that could not be offset by any economic benefit.

The Communications Department of the Ministry of Energy responded to Telex's request with the following:

"In 1997, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered the parties to resolve differences that have remained unresolved since the suspension of the construction of the Nagymaros site in 1989. Since the appointment of Deputy Minister Gábor Czepek as government commissioner in March last year, he has been in continuous talks with his Slovak counterparts, and we report regularly on the discussions. The aim of the intensified talks is to reach common ground between Hungary and Slovakia as soon as possible on issues such as the sharing of Danube water and energy. The dynamic series of talks and the good relations between the governments of the neighbouring countries provide a strong basis for a long overdue agreement. The fact that the two countries have similarities in terms of policy and challenges, and that their overall situation is characterised by interdependence and identity of interests, is a strong argument in favour of a sustainable agreement in the long term.

Thanks to frequent meetings, there is a better chance than ever of a mutually beneficial conclusion to the decades-long dispute in the summer of 2025.

As with the discussions so far, we will provide information on further developments and progress in due course."

Cover photo (for illustration purposes only): Getty Images