Borrell takes August Foreign and Defence meeting from Budapest to Brussels as punishment for Orbán

BRUSSELS, Jul. 22 () –

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, decided on Monday to move the informal meeting of foreign and defence ministers at the end of August from Budapest to Brussels to punish the political challenge of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who made a surprise trip to Moscow against the EU’s position of unwavering support for Ukraine.

“We had to send a signal, even if it was symbolic,” Borrell said at a press conference after discussing the matter with EU foreign ministers, among whom he noted that a large majority of “25 out of 27 member states” had criticised Orbán’s self-proclaimed “peace mission” and had insisted on the need to “maintain unity”, as was the case with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares.

Both Borrell and Albares have also rejected the boycott promoted by several Nordic and Baltic governments, as well as Poland, which advocate not attending the meetings that the Hungarian presidency of the Council convenes on their territory in response to Orbán’s snub.

“I reject the word ‘boycott’,” said the head of European diplomacy, who insisted that the change of city for the ministerial meeting was a “symbolic” message in response to the unilateral attitude of the Hungarian government, while invoking the Community treaties to ask all member states to “loyally” apply the common positions of the EU in foreign policy.

Along the same lines, Albares called for the “unity and solidarity” of the EU and rejected any kind of boycott within the Union, although he did not confirm his presence at the informal meeting, stating that Spain will review the agenda of each meeting and will reserve its right to decide, based on this, at what level it will attend each of the meetings.

He also explained that during the meeting the possibility of moving the meeting to Ukrainian territory arose, although this has been ruled out, since removing it from the EU requires the unanimity of the member states, although “this has been ruled out after verifying that this is not the case.”

For his part, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has declared that Budapest “is facing aggressive and bellicose hysteria over its peace mission,” according to Hungarian State Secretary for Communications Zoltan Kovacs, who has also criticised the “failure” of the EU strategy for Ukraine.

The minister also described as “childish” the attempt to undermine the informal meeting of foreign ministers scheduled for late August in Budapest, and reiterated that Hungary is ready to host the meeting, but also to attend if it is held in Brussels.

In response, Borrell said that “there is no hysteria” but that “he is just telling the truth” and pointed out that, contrary to what Orbán claims, “the only one who is in favour of war is Putin, who makes any peace talks conditional on Ukraine’s surrender.” “He sends us reminders every day,” he added, referring to the bombings.