The goal of a Fidesz government will be to create the conditions for Hungarian energy independence within 20 years, Viktor Orban, leader of conservative opposition Fidesz told a conference on Monday.

Speaking at the 4th Energy Forum in Budapest, Orban said that Fidesz, if it wins the elections next spring, would create a programme guaranteeing the country's energy independence.

In a letter to the conference, Laszlo Solyom, Hungary's president, said that renewable energy should play an increasingly prominent role in fulfilling the country's energy needs.

Orban said that while the world's energy consumption would fall next year, the trend would not last, as emerging economies assume the same "energy-guzzling" life-styles as in the West. Growing energy consumption will be continued to be serviced by traditional fossil fuels, he said.

He said the European Union would become more dependent on energy imports: its rate of dependence will soon rise to 70 percent from 50 percent. At the same time, there is no unified or competitive energy market. A common energy policy is also lacking, he said.

Orban insisted that there is process of "stealth legislation" taking place in the EU: environmental protection, subsidy policies and competition rules are driving energy management, which is often based on interests other than energy policy.

The EU is incapable of prioritising its tasks, he said. One example is that its economic stimulus package did not take into consideration or give any preference to the countries in the worst energy positions, namely those of central and eastern Europe. The first Slovak-Hungarian gas pipeline project to hook up the two countries' networks did not get any greater EU subsidy than the latest French-Belgian project, their seventh, he added.

Orban said the EU did not understand Eastern Europe's situation, citing the fact that they perceived Russian-EU relations to be based on mutual grounds, while the dependency of the buyer and seller was not necessarily based on market logic. EU states are divided, making individual deals while there is only a single seller. Competition is distorted, monopolies rule the market, he said.

Orban noted that Hungary imports 80 percent of it gas, and its supplies are mainly Russia-dependent. Hungary must reduce this dependency and find new transport routes, he said. It must also protect itself from hostile takeover attempts, such as the one made against MOL and successfully averted by new, Hungarian EU-conform legislation, and encourage regional cooperation. Hungary must also raise its green energy resources while making use of nuclear energy, too, he added.

The three-day conference which started on Sunday is organised by the Constellation Energy Institute and the Warsaw-based East Institute.