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EU deprives Hungary of hosting key meeting, EU Commission Vice President: We must send a signal

2024-07-23

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[Text/Guocha.net Liu Chenghui] The EU is still dissatisfied with Hungary, which visited Russia just after taking over. On July 22, local time, Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, announced plans to move the EU Foreign Ministers and Defense Ministers' Meeting originally scheduled to be hosted by Hungary next month to Brussels, Belgium. Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó had anticipated the EU's move and criticized it as "regrettable" and "naive."

According to Reuters and Bloomberg, Borrell announced the news after attending the EU Foreign Ministers' Meeting that day. Hungary originally planned to host a foreign ministers' meeting from August 28 to 29, followed by a defense ministers' meeting. US media described this as a great opportunity for Hungarian Prime Minister Orban to try to shape the EU's foreign policy agenda, and also a chance for Szijjártó to shine.

But Borrell revealed that EU member states had not yet reached a consensus on whether to attend the two meetings. He said that he chose to move both meetings to Brussels because most EU countries wanted to send a signal to Hungary.

Borrell said the EU "must send a signal", "even if it is only a symbolic signal", and that Hungary must suffer "some formal consequences" for its actions that violate EU policy. He also said Hungary should label Russia "pro-war" instead of the EU.

According to officials who attended the meeting, many EU foreign ministers expressed their dissatisfaction directly to Szijjártó during the meeting on the 22nd, criticizing Orban's visit to Russia and his meeting with Trump in the United States. Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said, "This point is very clear and has been reiterated without a doubt."

Recently, Hungary, which has taken over the rotating presidency of the European Union, has frequently shown its ambition in foreign affairs. Orban has visited Ukraine, Russia, and China, and met with former US President Trump in the United States. He called this series of visits a "peace mission". However, this has caused some EU leaders to "break down" and claim that Hungary does not represent the EU and has not been authorized by the EU.

Even before Borrell made the announcement, foreign media reported that Borrell would organize a diplomatic summit to boycott the foreign affairs conference hosted by Hungary at the same time. An EU diplomat said: "If the High Representative (Borrell) organizes a formal foreign affairs meeting on the same day, the ministers will not be able to go to Budapest."

Szijjártó said on the 19th that he had noticed reports that some EU foreign ministers "tried to use some tricks", but this was not surprising because Borrell had witnessed "the least successful period of European foreign policy" in the past five years. He pointed out that Borrell's move was "regrettable" and very "naive".

Earlier, some EU member states and the European Commission said they intended to reduce their participation in ministerial meetings held in Hungary during its presidency of the European Union.

Politico said that the conference hosted by Hungary should have been a grand event for the country to showcase itself on the world stage. The boycott of this conference highlighted the EU countries' neglect of Orban in an attempt to undermine Orban's limelight.

According to the Russian Satellite News Agency, in the face of frequent "stumbling blocks" from the EU, Szijjártó said on the 22nd that the EU Foreign Affairs Council has not provided any evidence to show that Orban is suspected of abusing his position as the rotating presidency of the EU and using it to visit Russia under the framework of the Ukrainian peace initiative.

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