After Orban's visit to Moscow: Borrell suggests moving EU foreign ministers' meeting to Brussels
Kyiv • UNN
Due to the boycott by many EU member states, the informal meeting of the EU Council will be moved from Hungary to Brussels. The decision was made by Josep Borrell, taking into account the position of 25 member states and Hungary's criticism of EU foreign policy.
As many EU member states have decided to boycott the EU Council meeting in Hungary, it will be moved to Brussels. This was stated at a press conference following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels by High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, UNN reports .
Details
Borrell said that the discussion of the venue for the next informal EU Council lasted for hours, and although he tried to find a common solution for all member states, "it was not possible.
Some wanted to go to Budapest, business as usual. Others did not want to go. Still others said they would let the high representative (i.e. Borrell - ed.) decide
In the end, Borrell emphasized that he was guided in his decision by the position of the "25 member states" and by the words of a representative of one EU country who attended a meeting of the UN Security Council chaired by Lavrov and called the EU "a party to the war." This is probably Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
I realized that we have to send a signal, even if it is a symbolic signal, that opposition to EU foreign policy and rejection of EU policy as a "party to the war" should have consequences... I decided that it would be more appropriate to convene the next informal meeting of the EU Foreign and Security Council in Brussels when we return from the holidays
Recall
Several EU countries, including Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, decided to boycott ministerial meetingsorganized by Hungary during its presidency of the EU Council to protest Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's meetings with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
