Top EU officials to boycott Hungary meetings after Putin talks and China visit

Hungarian PM Orban, Russia’s closest EU friend, enraged fellow EU leaders by flying to Moscow on trip that included China stop

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban during their meeting in Moscow. Photo: Kremlin / dpa

Published: 3:01am, 16 Jul 2024Updated: 3:21am, 16 Jul 2024

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has ordered top EU officials to skip a series of meetings in Hungary amid ire over Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brussels said on Monday.

Orban – whose country this month took over the rotating presidency of the body representing the European Union’s 27 nations – enraged his fellow leaders by jetting to Moscow on July 5.

The talks with Putin were part of what Orban – the Kremlin’s closest EU friend – described as a “peace mission” over Russia’s war in Ukraine, that also involved a visit to China and talks with former US president Donald Trump.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

A spokesman for European Commission president von der Leyen said that “in light of recent developments” EU commissioners would not attend meetings organised in Hungary as part of the presidency.

“The commission will be represented at senior civil servant level only during informal meetings,” spokesman Eric Mamer wrote on X.

Hungary’s EU counterparts were infuriated that Orban appeared to use the position of the EU’s rotating presidency to add weight to his overseas trips.

The six-month presidency passes between the EU’s member states and does not mean the holder represents the entire bloc.

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