European Leaders Snub Orbán Over Ukraine-Russia Peace Mission

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:27 pm

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is facing backlash from his European colleagues over his efforts to warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Orbán visited with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this month before traveling to Moscow to meet with Putin to bridge the diplomatic gap between the two leaders after more than two years of open armed conflict between their two nations. But his peace mission has met condemnation from members of the European Parliament.

On Monday, July 15, 63 members of the 705-seat European Parliament sent a letter to the presidents of the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament, to do the “utmost” to suspend Hungary’s voting rights in the Council. They accused Orbán of abusing his recent turn as the rotating European Union president and deliberately giving the impression he was acting on behalf of the entire European during his recent diplomatic travel.

The European Parliament members also accused Orbán of undermining the EU’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war. Among the things Orbán discussed with Zelenskyy during the first leg of his diplomatic mission, was the idea of initiating an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, to pave the way for further peace negotiations between the two sides.

“Mr Orbán is actively undermining common EU positions. For example, by pushing for a ceasefire at any cost, instead of a ceasefire on Ukraine’s terms,” the protest letter reads. “Not only is he exceeding his powers when he pretends to represent the EU as a whole, but he is actively pursuing a policy agenda which is contrary to common EU positions.”

Orbán’s office has insisted he was not pressuring Zelenskyy to accept the ceasefire idea, but merely trying to gauge Zelenskyy’s reaction to the idea and understand the Ukrainian leader’s boundaries for further negotiations.

Jessika Roswall, Sweden’s Minister for EU Affairs, told Reuters last week that Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland would not send political representation to informal EU meetings conducted under the auspices of Orbán’s term as the rotating EU president. Instead, Roswall said only lower-level civil servants from those countries would attend.

On Monday, European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer announced the commission would follow a similar path as the one Roswall laid out, sending only civil servants to attend meetings of Orbán’s EU presidency rather than sending political representation. Mamer also said the commission would not hold its customary visit of the College of European Commissioners during Orbán’s term as EU president.

János Bóka, the Hungarian Minister for European Affairs, criticized the European Commission on Monday for its apparent slight against Orbán’s EU presidency.

“The European Commission is an institution of the European Union,” Bóka said in a social media post. “The European Commission cannot choose which institution or member state it is willing to cooperate with. From now on, all committee decisions are made on political basis?”