Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic sees discrimination in the fact that foreigners have to pay more for gas in Hungary than nationals.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has condemned the recently introduced higher petrol price for EU foreigners in Hungary.

“Hungary must not discriminate against the citizens of other EU countries,” he told Croatian media on Tuesday on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels. If EU foreigners have to pay a higher price than nationals at Hungarian petrol stations, then that is “a clear violation of the law,” he added.

Last Friday, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban surprisingly made the price of petrol dependent on where the vehicle to be refueled is registered. Cars registered in Hungary can still get premium petrol (95 octane) and diesel at the official petrol price of 480 forints (1.22 euros). On the other hand, owners of vehicles registered abroad have to shell out the market price, which is 40 to 60 percent higher than the official price.

Orban justified the new regulation with the need to stop so-called “petrol tourism”. Motorists from the border areas of the EU neighbors Austria and Slovakia drove to Hungary in large numbers to fill up because the official petrol price there is far below that in their own countries. Orban ordered the low fixed price in November of the previous year. It is initially valid until July 1st.