2024-07-18 12:03:45
The EU countries’ boycott of informal meetings organized by Hungary as the EU Council’s presidency looks childish and should not affect the community’s formal events. This assessment is contained in a publication by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Day.Az reports with reference to TASS.
The publication points out that informal ministerial meetings are necessary for exchanging opinions and if they are not held, “little will come of it.” The article expresses hope that the boycott of events organized by Budapest will not affect formal meetings of EU representatives.
It also stresses that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has the right to travel to Moscow and Beijing, like any other of the 27 EU leaders, and this cannot be a reason to boycott the meetings. When European Council President Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin by phone in 2022, “they were not criticized for not having an official mandate to do so,” the newspaper recalled. As FAZ pointed out, the EU’s comments that Orbán did not speak on behalf of the EU were sufficient and “there is no need to constantly recall Hungary’s position on Ukraine.”
On July 15, the head of the press service of the European Commission, Eric Mamer, reported that the President of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, without waiting for her confirmation in this post by the European Parliament on July 18, cancelled the visit of the EC board to Hungary and lowered the level of representation at informal meetings of the EU Council under the Hungarian presidency.
Orban’s trip to Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing and Washington from July 2 to 11 began the day after Hungary took over the EU Council Presidency. Discussing potential peace initiatives without the European Commission and without Brussels’ permission sparked outrage in the EU leadership, which felt that Hungary was undermining European unity and the European Commission’s commitment to the highest possible level of support for Ukraine.