China Orban's trip to Putin: Von der Leyen orders boycott

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is reacting with a boycott decision to the unilateral actions of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Ukraine policy. The German leader has announced that no commissioners will attend future informal ministerial meetings under the leadership of the current EU Council Presidency in Hungary, only senior officials. The EU Commission will also forgo its traditional inaugural visit to the Hungarian Presidency, according to a spokesperson.

Orban's "peace mission"

The background to von der Leyen's decision is a trip abroad by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which was not coordinated with the EU, a few days after the start of Hungary's EU Council Presidency. Orban had met Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow and staged this as a "peace mission" to resolve the Ukraine conflict. He later also traveled to Beijing for talks with China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping and to the USA for a meeting with former US President Donald Trump.

The trips met with great resentment in the EU - above all because the Kremlin was able to exploit the visit to Moscow for its propaganda and Orban did not clearly represent the EU position on Ukraine policy during the trip.

The European Commission made it clear on several occasions that Orban was not traveling on behalf of the international community. There was also clear criticism from the German Foreign Office. "These are Hungarian solo efforts, which we take note of with great astonishment and skepticism," said a spokesperson at the Federal Press Conference in Berlin last Friday. Orban speaks exclusively for himself on these trips - and not for the European Union. With regard to possible consequences, the spokesperson said that we would have to see how the Hungarian Council Presidency continues. "It has already caused a lot of damage."

Some countries have already taken action

In response to Orban's unilateral actions at the beginning of the EU Council Presidency, Lithuania and Sweden have already announced that they will temporarily not be sending ministers to Hungary for meetings. Sweden's current EU Minister and designated EU Commissioner Jessika Roswall stated that Hungary's actions were harmful and must have consequences. According to Roswall, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland want to react similarly to Hungary's actions.

Brussels is also currently discussing whether an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers originally planned for the end of August in Budapest should be moved to Brussels. A decision could be made at the last regular meeting of EU foreign ministers before the summer break next Monday by EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell. He chairs the EU foreign ministers' meetings and is also responsible for issuing invitations.

Decision comes shortly before vote in the EU Parliament

The EU Commission's decision comes just a few days before the vote on a second term of office for Ursula von der Leyen in the European Parliament. European party families such as the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals have repeatedly called on her to take a tougher line on Hungary in the past. Von der Leyen is dependent on votes from this camp in Thursday's election.

Hungary has held the rotating presidency of the EU Council for six months since the beginning of the month. In this role, the country prepares meetings of the specialist ministers, among other things. These informal meetings usually bring together the respective heads of department from the 27 EU countries. The EU Commissioner responsible for the subject matter usually also attends the meeting.