After the Orban uproar

Borrell: Meeting in Brussels instead of Budapest

EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell

(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán went it alone, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell now wants to hold an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers planned for the end of August in Brussels instead of Budapest.

Hungary currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU for six months. However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's recent trips to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing have earned him significant criticism from the other EU states. However, the EU states are not united on the question of whether they should boycott ministerial meetings in Hungary in response.

Among the EU foreign ministers who met in Brussels on Monday, there was no unanimous opinion on where the informal council should be held after the summer break. It was therefore up to him to decide, said Borrell. As motivation for his current decision, Borrell also referred to statements by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, according to which the EU was promoting the war in Ukraine. According to Borrell, he wanted to send a signal that this would have consequences.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian head of state Vladimir Putin

(Bild: APA/AP)

Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel was the most outspoken critic of the boycott plans on Monday, even before the meeting. He spoke of nonsense and called for people to travel to Budapest and clearly express their opinion to the Hungarian government. Countries such as Spain and Slovenia also expressed clear opposition to the Borrell initiative.

What is going on behind the scenes?
According to diplomats, the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and representatives of countries such as France and Italy also expressed similar views behind the scenes. On the other side, however, were countries from north-eastern Europe such as Poland. Lithuania and Sweden had already announced days ago that they would temporarily not be sending ministers to Hungary for meetings in response to Orban's unilateral actions.

Following his unscheduled trips to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing, Orban also made a wide-legged appearance at the NATO summit in Washington.

(Bild: AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

According to Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, a compromise proposal was briefly put forward on Monday to organize the meeting of foreign ministers planned by Hungary in Ukraine, which is under attack from Russia. However, this failed because Hungary would have had to agree.

Schallenberg fundamentally against Hungary boycott
Austria's Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) was unable to attend today's meeting and was represented by a diplomat. In the past, however, Schallenberg has spoken out in principle against a boycott of the Hungarian EU Presidency.

In the run-up to today's meeting of EU foreign ministers, Schallenberg and seven other colleagues also called for a rapprochement between the European Union and Syria's ruler Bashar al-Assad. "As bitter as it is, the Assad regime is still firmly in the saddle with the help of Iran and Russia," Schallenberg said in a statement. Among other things, greater equal treatment of the various parties to the civil war at a diplomatic level is being considered. In addition, the EU should appoint a Syria envoy to maintain contact with all sides.

EU chief diplomat Borrell reacted cautiously to the proposal. The eight countries had been listened to and the "work will continue - pragmatically but not naively", said Borrell in response to a question from a journalist. "We know where the Syrian regime stands, and that is very close to Russia and Iran."