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[Global Times reporter Li Ziyu] Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, plans to organize a foreign ministers' meeting at the end of August to boycott the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers originally scheduled to be held in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, at the same time. "Russia Today" (RT) reported on the 20th that Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said that Borrell's "sabotage" plan was both "regrettable" and "naive."

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto's profile picture is from foreign media

Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union earlier this month and plans to hold an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers at the end of August. However, RT quoted Politico as saying this week that Borrell intends to hold a "formal" foreign ministers' meeting at the same time, essentially requiring senior officials to attend.

Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, file photo from foreign media

According to the report, Szijjarto told reporters on the 19th that he had not received a letter from Borrell inviting him to attend the foreign ministers' meeting that was allegedly scheduled for August 28-29. He added that he had heard reports that his counterpart "tried to use some tricks." Szijjarto said this was not surprising because Borrell had witnessed "the least successful period of European foreign policy" in the past five years.

"If he sent a letter like that, I would probably give him a shovel in the sand in response, because this 'I'm going to get all my friends together, or you're going to get all my friends together' thing has reached the maturity level of a kindergartener," Szijjártó said.

RT stated that Szijjártó said that it was "more regrettable than outrageous" for the EU to take such small actions when dealing with "bigger problems." RT added that the "bigger problem" here obviously refers to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

RT mentioned that Szijjártó also said that he was happy that Borrell was leaving office. "Although I must tell you... I have worked with three EU foreign policy high representatives, and every time a representative's term expired, I was sure that things would not get worse, but in the end I was always wrong."

According to previous media reports, European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer announced on the 15th that "in view of the latest developments since Hungary began its presidency of the European Union", European Commission President von der Leyen decided that the European Commission would only send senior civil servants to attend the informal meeting of the European Council. This means that the President of the European Commission and the European Commission will not visit Hungary. Organizing informal ministerial meetings was originally a landmark event of the rotating presidency, but now these important events are at risk of being cancelled. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Borrell previously stated that Orban's trip to Moscow only represented Hungary, not the EU's position.

Facing the accusations, Orban admitted that his visit was not authorized by the EU, but sarcastically said that peace could not be achieved "from a comfortable armchair in Brussels." There are also voices of support within the EU. Slovak Prime Minister Fico expressed his appreciation on the 5th and said that if it were not for his physical condition, he would go with Orban. The Slovak leadership believes that the conflict has caused a huge humanitarian disaster to Russia, Ukraine and the world as a whole. If all parties do not commit to peace talks and try to achieve a ceasefire through military means, peace will be a long way off.

In addition, the EU is currently divided on boycotting Hungary. On the 16th, 63 members of the European Parliament sent a letter to von der Leyen, Michel and European Parliament President Metzora, saying that Orban had "abused the role of the rotating presidency and caused significant losses to the EU" and called for the suspension of Hungary's voting rights in the EU. However, Dutch Prime Minister Schof told the media that the Netherlands will decide whether to participate in activities during Hungary's term as the rotating presidency of the EU based on specific circumstances, and he refused to adopt a formal boycott. Luxembourg Prime Minister Frieden also expressed strong opposition to boycotting Hungary's rotation.