EU considers boycotting Orbán's foreign affairs summit

EU foreign ministers are prepared to boycott the August foreign affairs meeting hosted by Hungary and instead organize their own, Politico reports.

Viktor Orbán has blown the fuse with EU leaders by trying to block a new aid package for Ukraine and by his "peace mission" visits to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping without previously consulting the bloc's 26 other leaders. The reason this is particularly problematic now is because Hungary currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

According to Politico, EU foreign ministers are planning the boycott because they want to avoid becoming props in yet another Orbán propaganda show.

According to an EU diplomat who asked to remain anonymous, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell will convene the other EU foreign ministers for an official foreign affairs council on 28-29 August, the same time as the meeting hosted by Orbán in Hungary. Since the Hungarian meeting is informal, the foreign ministers would have to go to the event organised by Borrell. By boycotting the foreign affairs summit, ministers are hoping to limit Hungary's "trolling".

"If there is a formal foreign affairs council that day, organised by the High Representative, the ministers will not be able to go to Budapest," said one diplomat. Another diplomat added that by boycotting the Budapest meeting, the other foreign ministers wanted to "send a clear signal that Hungary is not acting on behalf of the EU".
This would not be the first time that EU diplomats have sent such a signal to the Hungarian prime minister: only seven ministers from other countries attended the first meeting of the Hungarian presidency on industrial policy, and no EU commissioner took part.

The plan is said to have already been discussed informally with several EU countries, including France and Germany. According to Politico, Borrell's team will present it to the EU's 27 permanent representatives on Wednesday.