Hungary cannot be removed from the EU Council Presidency - Vice President of the European Commission
Kyiv • UNN
Hungary cannot be stripped of its EU Council presidency, despite Orban's controversial visits to China and Russia, but EU countries can publicly boycott his policies.
After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's trips to China and Russia, the EU's trust in his country has fallen to zero. Nevertheless, Hungary cannot be deprived of the EU Council presidency. This was stated in an interview with Suspilne by Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, UNN reports.
Details
According to her, there is currently no way to deprive Hungary of the presidency, but EU countries can publicly boycott Orban's policies.
I am a lawyer, so I will give you the dry answer of a lawyer: we cannot deprive Hungary of the presidency. There is no way to do that. But we can boycott and openly show that we do not agree with Mr. Orban's policy. This is what we are doing now, and we are gradually preparing for the Polish presidency, which begins after the New Year
She also reassured that despite his actions, Orban will not be able to cause harm within the EU.
The Hungarian presidency comes at a time when the Council will not be making any key decisions, as we are at the beginning of the legislative period, changing mandates in institutions
Context
On July 2, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A few days later, the Hungarian prime minister paid an unannounced visit to Moscow, where he met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
In conclusion, Viktor Orban traveled to China. During his meeting with Orban, Chinese President Xi Jinping also spoke about "a quick ceasefire and political settlement" of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Recall
Bloomberg, citing its own sources, said that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's visits to Moscow and Beijing to meet with Putin and Xi Jinping have irritated Western allies.