The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, canceled the visit of the board of commissioners to Hungary and adjusted the level of representation at meetings under the Hungarian presidency due to the "peaceful tour" of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
This was announced by the spokesperson of the European Commission, Eric Mamer.
According to him, this decision was made "in the light of the latest events related to the beginning of Hungaryʼs presidency".
"The President decided that the European Commission will be represented only at the level of senior officials during the informal meetings of the Council. The visit of the board (of commissioners) to the presiding country will not take place," Mamer said.
In effect, this means that European commissioners will not attend informal meetings organized by the Hungarian presidency.
"Peace tour" of Orban
On July 2, Orban came to Kyiv, where he held talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyi. It was his first visit to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war. During the meeting, Orban called the war an invasion of Russia, but asked Zelensky for a ceasefire.
Already on July 5 , Orban came to Moscow and met with the leader of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. One of the key topics of the meeting was the Russian Federationʼs war against Ukraine and its "peaceful settlement". On July 8 , Orban came to China as part of his "peace mission".
On the same day, Zelenskyi said that he did not know that Orban would go to Moscow after Kyiv. He noted that Orban cannot be a mediator in the issue of the end of the war — such a role can be played by the USA, China and the collective EU, that is, forces that are able to restrain Russia economically and militarily.
The EU leadership criticized Orbanʼs trip. Politico wrote that the ministers of foreign affairs of the European Union plan to ignore the summit in Budapest, which is scheduled for August 28 and 29.