Slovakia’s president Peter Pellegrini says his country will not join a boycott of Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the EU, saying he did not believe Hungary’s PM should be “punished for trying to engage in dialogue”.
In a separate sign the boycott may be failing to take root, the Netherlands confirmed the same day its justice and security minister David van Weel will travel to Budapest July 22 to attend an informal meeting in Budapest.
“If it is in the interest of the Netherlands, we will go there,” PM Dick Schoof told the Dutch public broadcaster NOS July 18.
The statements by Slovakia and the Netherlands showed fissures starting to emerge in a boycott of Hungary’s presidency announced the previous week by the European Commission, Sweden, Finland, Poland, and the Baltic countries. Denmark said July 18 it was joining the boycott as well.
Under the boycott, which follows Viktor Orbán’s self-described “peace” missions to Moscow and Beijing, EU commissioners and member-state government ministers would not travel to Budapest for formal and informal meetings of the Council of the EU. Instead they will send civil servants.
Ratcheting up the boycott somewhat, EU High Representative Josep Borrell told EU ambassadors July 17 he would also summon a “formal” foreign affairs council in Brussels, to take place at the exact same time as Hungary’s August informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Budapest.
This informal meeting of EU foreign ministers, held every six months without aides, is called the “Gymnich” meeting, in reference to the first such meeting in 1974 in Germany’s Schloss Gymnich.
It was perhaps a sign of the haphazard nature of the effort that just as splinters began to appear in the boycott, other MEPs called for strengthening it.
Germany’s Green MEP Daniel Freund called the boycott “a good first step”, speaking to Deutsche Welle July 16.
“But I think the Parliament should follow that example and boycott this presidency as well, so, for example, no invitation for Orbán to speak here,” he added.
Twelve of Finland’s MEPs also called for ending Hungary’s presidency altogether rather than boycotting it.
“We should urgently take up the proposal to take away Hungary’s voting rights,” Left group MEP Li Andersson told Finland’s public broadcaster Yle.
PM Orbán’s “peace” mission fits with his leadership style, says Chatham House senior research fellow Armida van Rij.
“This is typical Orbán behaviour,” she says.
“When Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó came to speak at Chatham House earlier this year, he stated clearly that Hungary’s aim is to disrupt,” she adds.
Orbán has, though, occasionally been willing to rein in his leadership style of disrupting the status quo–especially when Hungary’s core interests are involved.
At the December 2023 high-stakes EU summit opening Ukraine’s accession negotiations, the other 26 member states’ leaders convinced him to take a coffee break.
When he left the room, the other leaders got their consensus to open Ukraine’s accession talks.
And, in return, Orbán got €10 billion which had been frozen over rule-of-law violations.
