Ecofin kicks off in Budapest, with 9 out of 27 EU ministers present
EU divided on boycott of Hungarian rotating EU presidency, even if majority wins choice to isolate Budapest after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s visit to Moscow at the start of the semester.
Eight of the 27 EU finance ministers are in the Hungarian capital for the informal Ecofin meeting that will start soon, nine in total including the host Mihály Varga. In addition to the Italian Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti there are colleagues from Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia. Absent are the European Commissioners Valdis Dombrovskis and Paolo Gentiloni.
Hungary, several countries against common debt
Upon arrival at the Eurogroup meeting in Budapest, Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga slammed Mario Draghi’s European competitiveness plan: “We have a common debt experience after the consequences of the Recovery. There are several countries that are against the use of this resource.”
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