EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has ordered top EU officials to skip a series of meetings in Hungary amid ire over Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brussels said on Monday.
Orban – whose country this month took over the rotating presidency of the body representing the European Union’s 27 nations – enraged his fellow leaders by jetting to Moscow on July 5.
The talks with Putin were part of what Orban – the Kremlin’s closest EU friend – described as a “peace mission” over Russia’s war in Ukraine, that also involved a visit to China and talks with former US president Donald Trump.
A spokesman for European Commission president von der Leyen said that “in light of recent developments” EU commissioners would not attend meetings organised in Hungary as part of the presidency.
“The commission will be represented at senior civil servant level only during informal meetings,” spokesman Eric Mamer wrote on X.
Hungary’s EU counterparts were infuriated that Orban appeared to use the position of the EU’s rotating presidency to add weight to his overseas trips.
The six-month presidency passes between the EU’s member states and does not mean the holder represents the entire bloc.
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Hungary’s Orban meets Xi during self-styled Ukraine ‘peace mission’ panned by West
Hungary’s Orban meets Xi during self-styled Ukraine ‘peace mission’ panned by West
Other EU leaders slammed nationalist Orban for his trip to see pariah Putin in Moscow and insisted that he had been given no broader mandate for any talks.
Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law at HEC in Paris, called the commission boycott of Hungary’s presidency events “unprecedented”.
The move from the head of the EU’s executive came after diplomats said the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was eyeing a plan for foreign ministers to miss a meeting in Budapest next month.
Several diplomats said Borrell could call a meeting in Brussels at the same time to prevent ministers having to go to Hungary.
Officials said the de facto boycott of the foreign affairs meeting would serve as a reprimand for Hungary and stop it taking the spotlight afforded by the presidency.
Orban, long a thorn in the EU’s side for his government’s backsliding on democratic principles and rule of law, remains defiantly close with the Kremlin more than two years after Putin ordered his all-out invasion of Ukraine.
The EU has staunchly opposed Russia’s war and slapped 14 rounds of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow.
But Hungary has repeatedly stalled the efforts to punish the Kremlin and to aid Ukraine in its fight against the invading forces.
Orban’s visit to Moscow was the first by a European leader since a trip by Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in April 2022.
