HS analysis|The EU partners were afraid that the Hungarian Prime Minister would abuse his position as EU president, and that’s exactly what seems to be happening, writes HS EU correspondent Jarno Hartikainen.
Budapest
Hungarian of the prime minister Viktor Orbán Friday’s visit to Moscow really confirms the fears that other EU countries had when Hungary took over the EU presidency at the beginning of July.
Usually, the rotating presidency of the Council of EU countries is a rather uninteresting event, a six-month long administrative dune. The chairman leads the negotiations between the member countries on the bills and massages compromises.
However, as Hungary’s term approached, EU partners began to worry whether the country’s government might abuse its position as chairman.
Confidence The Hungarian government within the Union is very weak, as the country is completely on its own with regards to supporting Ukraine and has repeatedly slowed down and blocked decisions regarding support for Ukraine. The fear of EU partners is that Hungary will use its presidency to block support for Ukraine. In the European Parliament, the presidency was already demanded to be taken from Hungary.
However, Hungarian diplomats and ministers have repeated the message that the country handles its presidency constructively and acts as a reliable mediator in negotiations between EU countries, as the role of the president requires.
But on the fifth day of the presidency, Orbán showed that the fears of EU partners were justified. Some countries were afraid that Orbán would try to misuse the position of the presidency by presenting himself as a representative of the EU.
This concern was already raised on Tuesday, when Orbán made a surprise visit to Kyiv to meet the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. At the meeting, Orbán presented his appeal that Ukraine would seek a quick ceasefire with Russia.
The concern was finally confirmed when Orbán flew to Moscow on Friday, on his self-proclaimed “peace mission”. In the radio interview he gave before his departure, Orbán repeated his old message that he is the only one in the EU who strives for peace. And while Orbán admitted that he was not negotiating on behalf of the EU, he seemed to position himself as some sort of mediator between Ukraine, Russia and the EU.
One after another, the leaders of the EU institutions and member states went public to emphasize that the trip is bilateral diplomacy, and that Orbán has no mandate to represent the Union.
For a meeting there are other details involved that tend to annoy allies.
It is a long tradition that the president of the commission and all the commissioners visit the country of the presidency at the very beginning of the season, and the visit was tentatively scheduled for this week. However, it had to be canceled, according to the Hungarians, purely for scheduling reasons.
On Friday, it emerged that Orbán could not meet the commissioners because he flew to Moscow for the meeting Vladimir Putin. EU External Relations Director Josep Borrell reminded that EU leaders have agreed to refuse meetings with Putin.
And even though Orbán had been specifically asked not to interfere with the EU presidency in any way with the visit, he shared a photo from Moscow on social media, the lower left corner of which is decorated with the logo of Hungary’s EU presidency.
Orbán also kept EU partners in the dark. As rumors of the visit began to spread on Thursday, the president of the European Council Charles Michel tried several times to reach out to Orbán. The contacts were not answered.
It should also be remembered that Orbán has annoyed allies in the past by fraternizing with Putin. Last fall, Orbán flew to China to meet him. The handshake picture enraged some of the EU leaders. Prime Minister of Estonia, future EU foreign affairs representative Kaja Kallas characterized the image as very unpleasant.
“How to shake hands with a criminal waging a war of aggression”, Kallas asked.
Hungarian The EU presidency got off to a shaky start, to say the least. Many are already wondering what kind of game Orbán is prepared for, if Donald Trump win the US presidential election in November.
There are still 179 days left in the season.
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