The European Commission announced today that, due to developments since the beginning of the Hungarian presidency in the Council of the European Union, it plans to boycott the informal meetings of ministers and to send only high-ranking officials to them instead of European commissioners. On the social network X it stated Eric Mamer, spokesperson for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. According to him, the traditional visit of European commissioners to the country of the presidency was also cancelled. Hungarian politicians condemned the commission’s move.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has come under fire for his recent trips to Russia and China, which he described as a “peace mission” in an effort to end the war in Ukraine and which he did not consult with the leaders of the remaining 26 EU countries. Union officials immediately stated that it was a bilateral trip for which he had no mandate from the European Union.
“In light of the recent developments related to the beginning of the Hungarian presidency, the President of the EC has decided that the European Commission will be represented at the informal meetings of the Council only at the level of senior civil servants,” wrote Mamer. Representatives of all 27 EU countries and the European Commissioner in charge of the area are normally present at the meetings of the Union ministers. Formal meetings are held in Brussels, informal in the Presidency country, now all are held in Budapest.
In recent days, there have also been voices that even the ministers themselves should boycott the meeting in protest against Orbán’s activities. According to the newspaper Politico, this already happened last week, at Tuesday’s meeting of the ministers responsible for the internal market and industry in the Hungarian capital, there were only seven ministers out of 27, and not even the European Commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, arrived. The Czech Republic was represented by David Müller, Senior Director of the European Union and Foreign Trade Section of the Ministry of Industry.
“The Hungarian Presidency is committed to sincere cooperation with EU Member States and Union institutions. They have been invited to participate in Presidency events aimed at solving common challenges,” he responded on the X social network Hungarian Minister for European Affairs János Bóka. “The EU is an international organization made up of its member states. The European Commission is an EU institution. The European Commission cannot choose the institutions and member states it wants to cooperate with. Will all the commission’s decisions now reflect political considerations?” added Bóka.
The Hungarian Prime Minister has made several trips since the beginning of July, when Budapest took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. In addition to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he also visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, who has been waging war against Ukraine for almost two and a half years. He subsequently moved to China, where he shook hands with President Xi Jinping. After visiting the NATO summit last week, Viktor Orbán then met with the Republican candidate for the US president, Donald Trump, whom he admires and strongly supports in his candidacy.
“The policy of appeasement will not stop Putin,” she wrote then, in response to Orbán’s meeting with the Russian president, the head of the European Commission with reference to the policy of concessions or reconciliation. “Only unity and determination will open the way to a complete, just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” she added.
The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, also emphasized at the time that the EU’s position on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is reflected in many conclusions of the European Council, and this position excludes official contacts between the EU and Putin. He also added that last year an arrest warrant was issued for Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, in connection with the abduction of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Source: www.tyden.cz
