Hungary excluded from EU meeting over Ukraine stance

The European Union has stripped Hungary of the right to host the next meeting of its foreign and defence ministers over its stance on the war in Ukraine.

The event comes weeks after Hungary assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union, a role in which it usually hosts the event, and amid public anger over Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this month.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Hungary’s actions had consequences and “we have to send a signal, even if it is only symbolic”.

Hungary described the move as “completely childish”.

Every six months, under the new council presidency, EU foreign and defence ministers hold informal meetings to discuss the biggest global issues facing the bloc.

The next meetings were due to take place on August 28-30 and were scheduled to be held in Budapest, but on Monday Mr Borrell announced they would instead take place in Brussels.

Citing comments made after a meeting with Mr Putin in which Mr Orban accused the EU of having a “pro-war policy”, Mr Borrell told reporters: “If you want to talk about the war side, talk about Putin.

“I can say that all member states – with one exception – have been very critical of this behaviour.

“I think it is appropriate… to express these sentiments and to convene further meetings of the foreign affairs and defence council in Brussels.”

Of the other 26 EU countries, only Slovakia backed Hungary in the dispute.

Following the decision, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on Facebook: “They have given a fantastic response.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone, but it feels like I’m in kindergarten.”

Mr Orban’s meeting with Mr Putin went as follows: part of what he described as a “peace mission” – which came days after Hungary assumed the council presidency – during which he also visited the leaders of Ukraine and China as well as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the United States.

The trip has been met with condemnation from leaders across the EU, with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen describing it as “nothing more than a mission of appeasement”.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said Mr Orban “has no authority to negotiate or discuss on behalf of the EU”, while Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the trip “sends the wrong message to the outside world and is an insult to the Ukrainian people’s struggle for freedom”.

The incident is one of several since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that has left Hungary at odds with most of the rest of the EU over the appropriate response.

After winning re-election in April 2022, just months after the invasion, Mr Orban told crowds of supporters that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was among those he would must “fight” in his fourth term.

Last year he used Hungary several times. veto postponement 50bn euro (£42bn) non-military financial aid package for Ukraine.