The Orban case jeopardises the European semester, but Von der Leyen will go to the informal summit in Budapest
Hungarian EU presidency creates tensions with Orban's autonomous meetings with Putin, Xi Jinping and Trump
2' min read
2' min read
The 'Orban case', created by the autonomous initiatives taken by the Hungarian prime minister in the last few days, risks turning very quickly into an institutional crisis between Brussels and Strasbourg, right in the highlight week of the name, between the Parliament and the European Commission. Although the European Commission's 'boycott' of the informal councils in Hungary - the EU executive does not use this term - will not apply to the leaders' informal summit in Budapest. President Ursula von der Leyen will therefore go to the summit. "Instead, cooperation will remain at the level of the Commissioners for formal councils, where decisions are taken," said a Commission spokesperson. "We took this decision to send a symbolic message for Viktor Orban's uncoordinated travels, which hurt the indispensable unity of the EU," he stressed.
Indeed, signs of boycott of the rotating EU presidency are multiplying. The role that the Hungarian prime minister is playing without a European mandate, with meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and also with the Republican candidate for the White House, Donald Trump , close to the NATO summit, has now become a political stumbling block that risks paralysing the European 'semester', which has in any case been amputated by several weeks given the holiday period just around the corner. This was also echoed at the Ecofin this morning, as Antonio Pollio Salimbeni reports for Radiocor-Il Sole 24 Ore.
The Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti , argued that the European Union 'must remain engaged with G7 partners to continue to provide adequate financial aid to Ukraine'. However, support for Kiev does not appear to be a priority of the Hungarian presidency, far from it.
For the German Minister of Economics, the Liberal Democrat Christian Lindner , "the Hungarian Presidency unfortunately started with unilateral gestures on the diplomatic level, which we felt very disappointingly. Hungary knows that peace and European stability as a whole is being defended in Ukraine. It knows that we are partners and friends. We expect the ai
n Ukraine remains the top priority also during the Hungarian EU Council Presidency'.
