Nicholas Watson – Balkan Insight
Angered by Viktor Orban’s globetrotting since Hungary assumed the EU presidency on July 1, the EU Commission said commissioners will skip informal EU Council meetings hosted by Budapest and instead send bureaucrats.
Hungarian government officials condemned the European Commission’s decision on Monday that commissioners will skip informal Council of the EU meetings hosted by Budapest during its six-month presidency, in response to Viktor Orban’s unsanctioned meetings since July 1 with foreign leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
“The @EU_Commission cannot cherry pick institutions [and member states] it wants to cooperate with. Are all #Commission decisions now based on political considerations?” the Hungarian prime minister’s political director, Balazs Orban, wrote on X.
On Monday evening, Eric Mamer, chief spokesman for EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, wrote that, “In light of recent developments marking the start of the Hungarian Presidency, the President has decided that @EU_Commission will be represented at senior civil servant level only during informal meetings of the Council. The College visit to the Presidency will not take place.”
The “developments” Mamer was referring to were the meetings that Viktor Orban has held with the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, China and Azerbaijan, as well as a visit to Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, since Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU on July 1.
While these trips were all technically bilateral, Orban created the impression that he was representing the EU on a ‘peace mission’ to help negotiate a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine by displaying the bloc’s flags and logos.
“Chinese and Russian media have falsely reported that Orban travelled as an EU representative – causing outrage from EU leaders and heads of government,” said Armida van Rij, senior research fellow at Chatham House.
Alejandro Esteso Perez, a political scientist and researcher, described Orban’s actions as “trolling his EU counterparts, as he is playing not only with the ambiguity of (not) representing the EU vis-à-vis the three leaders, but also through this ‘surprise factor’ where we did not find out about these meetings until a few hours before they took place.”
Some attributed the EU Commission’s unprecedented decision to send only bureaucrats to the meetings hosted by Budapest to von der Leyen’s re-election bid to lead the EU Commission for another five-year term. Von der Leyen still needs the approval of the European Parliament, which is generally not well disposed to the Hungarian prime minister and his Eurosceptic government.
“The @EU_Commission announced that it will boycott the Hungarian Presidency of the Council. This is clearly a part of @vonderleyen’s election campaign. We have become used to her using the EU institutions, especially against #Hungary for political blackmail and pressure. This is unacceptable and goes against the very essence of European cooperation,” Kinga Gal, an MEP from Orban’s Fidesz party, wrote on X.