Moved meetings and no EU commissioners in Hungary.
This is how Brussels is now marking against Viktor Orbán's way of handling his presidency in the EU Council of Ministers.
In normal cases, the entire EU Commission visits the country that currently holds the presidency in the EU Council of Ministers. But not to Hungary, announces the Commission's chief spokesperson Éric Mamer.
"In light of events that have occurred at the beginning of Hungary's presidency, the President has decided that the Commission will only be represented at the level of officials at informal council meetings. The Commission's visit to the presidency will not take place," writes Mamer on X.
The news is immediately condemned from the Hungarian side.
"Are all Commission decisions now based on political considerations?" asks EU Minister János Bóka, also on X.
Borrell moves meeting?
Thus, the war of words escalates further between Hungary and large parts of the rest of the EU.
The concern is great that Hungary will exploit the presidency in a way that is not considered compatible with the role of "neutral mediator" that a presidency country is expected to play.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's "peace trips" to Moscow and Beijing have received scathing criticism from other EU countries.
It's under all criticism that one behaves in that way and makes that kind of trips, says Rural Minister Peter Kullgren (KD) on his way into an agricultural ministerial meeting in Brussels on Monday.
Sweden and several other countries have already marked against Orbán's actions by not sending ministers but only officials to various informal meetings in Hungary this July.
EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell is also said to be trying to move a forthcoming foreign and defense ministerial meeting in August from Budapest to Brussels.
"Counterproductive"
The Social Democrats have demanded that Sweden should also boycott the formal meetings in Brussels.
Peter Kullgren, however, sees no reason for that.
I actually think it would be purely counterproductive. I need to meet at least 25 other ministers from different countries, says Peter Kullgren.
The EU presidency country has as its main task to lead the Council of Ministers' meetings and ongoing negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission.
In the presidency country, various informal ministerial meetings are held, even though all formal meetings are held in Brussels.
The presidency rotates between all member states for a period of six months each. Here are the next five:
2024, autumn: Hungary
2025, spring: Poland
2025, autumn: Denmark
2026, spring: Cyprus
2026, autumn: Ireland
