European Council President Charles Michel coming to Budapest for talks with Orbán

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel is coming to Budapest for bilateral talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday.

According to Michel's spokesperson, Ecaterina Casinge, the meeting will be held in preparation for the upcoming European Council summit, scheduled for 14-15 December.

The reason for the visit might be a letter that, according to Politico, Orbán recently sent to Michel in which the Hungarian PM threatened to derail talks on Ukraine if EU leaders do not begin a strategic discussion on their policy towards Kyiv. Orbán considers the talks urgent given the current situation of the war between Russia and Ukraine, and wrote that without a strategic discussion on their joint policy on the matter, there can be no decision on opening accession talks with Ukraine, financial support for the country or further sanctions against Russia. Member state leaders are due to vote on all of these at the upcoming December summit.

According to Politico, Orbán's fueling of tensions is an attempt to put pressure on the EU about the €13 billion worth in funding that the Commission continues to block from Hungary, pending its decision on the expected rule of law reforms. A small portion of these funds may become available to Hungary soon, following the EC's Thursday proposal to approve the revision of Hungary's recovery plan, opening a shortcut to an advance of nearly €1 billion.

Commenting on the Hungarian Prime Minister's policies to Népszava's Brussels correspondent at the October EU summit, Charles Michel said: “My job is to preserve European unity. Is it easy? No. Does it happen automatically? No. It takes a lot of effort to listen to each other and to compromise, but the EU has always been a place of compromise.”