The lame duck EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell decreed yesterday that the next meetings of the European Union’s foreign and defense ministers not be held in Budapest, as would be normally occur under the current half-year EU presidency of Hungary, but in Brussels instead. This is to “send a signal, even if it is a symbolic signal,” to punish Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for his July 2-11 Ukraine “peace mission” to Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing, Washington and Mar-a-Lago. Borrell said the bloc’s members strongly rejected Orbán’s claim, “with only a single exception,” referring to Hungary’s neighbor, Slovakia. (Slovakia and Hungary are the only EU/NATO members that border Ukraine, and therefore are immediate affected by the 2014 coup and war.) Borrell further accused Orbán of “disqualifying” the bloc’s policy, adding that his actions must have “formal consequences.”
Radicals like Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, who posed the question whether the EU was the right institution to be a member of, even openly pursued the expulsion of Hungary from the Union. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has backed Hungary, is a likely target for expulsion calls as well.
Earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen canceled a planned visit of EU commissioners to Hungary in protest over Orbán’s actions. She also lowered the level of the Commission’s representation at informal meetings during Hungary’ six-month EU presidency.
