Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, drawing rebukes from fellow EU leaders and a warning that he did not speak for the European Union.
Hungary assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the bloc on Monday. Five days in and Orban has visited Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv and formed the “Patriots for Europe” alliance with other right-wing nationalists.
Now, he has chosen to go to Moscow on a “peace mission”, days before a NATO summit.
“With such a meeting the Hungarian presidency ends before it has really begun,” one EU diplomat said.
“Hungary does not seem to have understood its role… The scepticism of EU member states was unfortunately justified – it’s all about promoting Budapest’s interests.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Orban in Moscow was “not representing the EU in any form”. Finland Prime Minister Petteri Orpo described news of the visit as disturbing.
“His visit would show disregard for the duties of the EU Presidency and undermines interests of the European Union,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.
Pavel Havlicek, research fellow at the Association for International Affairs, said Orban’s visit was an abuse of a power vacuum in Brussels and a dangerous undermining of the common European position.
Orban said he recognised he had no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the EU, but that peace could not be made “from a comfortable armchair in Brussels”.
“We cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end,” he wrote on X.
Hungary assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the bloc on Monday. Five days in and Orban has visited Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv and formed the “Patriots for Europe” alliance with other right-wing nationalists.
Now, he has chosen to go to Moscow on a “peace mission”, days before a NATO summit.
“With such a meeting the Hungarian presidency ends before it has really begun,” one EU diplomat said.
“Hungary does not seem to have understood its role… The scepticism of EU member states was unfortunately justified – it’s all about promoting Budapest’s interests.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Orban in Moscow was “not representing the EU in any form”. Finland Prime Minister Petteri Orpo described news of the visit as disturbing.
“His visit would show disregard for the duties of the EU Presidency and undermines interests of the European Union,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.
Pavel Havlicek, research fellow at the Association for International Affairs, said Orban’s visit was an abuse of a power vacuum in Brussels and a dangerous undermining of the common European position.
Orban said he recognised he had no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the EU, but that peace could not be made “from a comfortable armchair in Brussels”.
“We cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end,” he wrote on X.