European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell on Tuesday ordered an upcoming biannual meeting of foreign and defense ministers be relocated from Budapest to Brussels over Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s “peace mission” to Moscow earlier this month. File photo by Kenzo Tribouillard/EPA-EFE
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borell on Tuesday ordered a key upcoming meeting of foreign and defense ministers be moved from Budapest to Brussels over Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s “peace mission” to Moscow earlier this month.
Hungary should have hosted the three-day series of meetings in its capacity as the new president of the Council of the European Union, but Borrell stripped it of the Aug. 28-30 Informal Meeting of Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministers after lambasting it for calling EU shipments of weapons and ammunition to Kyiv a “pro-war policy.” Advertisement
“The so-called Hungarian ‘peace mission’ benefits only [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and breaches the sincere cooperation among EU members. Twenty-five member states criticized it. Hence my decision to convene informal meetings of the EU Foreign and Defense Ministers in Brussels,” Borrell said in a post on X. Advertisement
Addressing a press conference following a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council Borrell said Hungary’s actions should have consequences and that member states had to act, even if only symbolically.
“We have to send a signal, even if it’s a symbolic signal, that being against the foreign policy of the European Union and disqualifying the policy of the European Union as the ‘party of war’ has to have consequences,” Borrell said. “We analyzed the statements and actions implemented by the Hungarian Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister of Hungary, and with only a single exception, I can say that all Member States, were very much critical about this behavior.
He went on to place responsibility for the war on Moscow and Putin.
“It is Putin who is the war party,” Borrell added. “The only one who is ‘pro-war’ is Putin, who is calling for Ukraine’s partition and rendition as his ‘pre-conditions’ for any talks and cease-fire. He sends reminders every day, in the form of thousands of missiles, drones and glide bombs, and more military offensives.”
Borrell said any fair, lasting peace had to preserve Ukraine’s independence and guarantee justice for the war crimes committed during the two-and-half-year war, stressing that any initiative claiming to be seeking peace that ignored these basic tenets would ultimately only benefit Putin and would not deliver peace. Advertisement
He also castigated Budapest for what he termed its “lack of loyal cooperation” over its failure, as a member of the EU, to support the bloc’s foreign policy “actively and unreservedly” as required under the international treaties that form the EU’s constitutional basis.
Borrell said that while foreign policy was a sovereign matter “as far as they’re members of this club, they have to obey the treaties,” and that the obligation to do so was not optional.
Borrell reiterated criticism of Hungary’s veto over military assistance for Ukraine dating back to May 2023 preventing Brussels from partially re-imbursing member states for military equipment shipments to the tune of $7.2 billion under a so-called European Peace Facility. The blockage has forced EU countries to forge military assistance agreements directly with Kyiv that cut out Brussels.
Borrell complained that despite member states’ ire, the situation remained deadlocked saying he had “lost hope” that Budapest would relent and warning it could disincentivize some capitals from providing military assistance going forward.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto dismissed the meeting snub in a withering response on social media.
“What a fantastic response they have come up with. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but it feels like being in a kindergarten,” he said. Advertisement
There were also cracks in the united front of EU states with Luxembourg Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel calling the boycott foolish and vowing to travel to Budapest as planned as it was preferable to tell Hungarian ministers to their faces of dissatisfaction over their actions than exclude them.
Orban’s July 5 trip to Moscow, three days after a surprise visit to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, came amid a flurry of what he said was shuttle peace diplomacy marking Budapest’s assumption of the council presidency which also took him to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping and Mar-a-Largo to meet with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The EU moved quickly to distance itself from Orban’s mission stressing that the presidency of the European Council did not come with any mandate to represent the bloc internationally and that the Orban-Putin meeting occurred “exclusively, in the framework of the bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia.”
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo called the meeting “disturbing” saying in a post on X that it demonstrated a disregard for the responsibilities of the presidency and “undermined” EU interests. Advertisement
