Borrell: It’s unacceptable that Szijjártó says the EU is pushing for war

The strengthening of Ukraine's air defences is one of the main topics at Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on arrival at the meeting, because "just after Prime Minister Orbán's visit to Kyiv and to Putin in Moscow", the Russians fired missiles at a children's hospital. Borrell said that after first holding talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba, he will call for a restricted session on "what has happened in the last few weeks", from Orbán's visits to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó's speech at the UN Security Council, where he accused the EU of "pushing for war".

This is completely unacceptable."

– the EU quasi-Foreign Minister said. "The European Union supports Ukraine and wants to finish this war" in accordance with the UN Charter. "We will discuss how member states evaluate this position", while the Hungarian government holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. “The EU is not pushing for war,” he reitarated once again.

As previously covered, the rotating presidency does not possess the authority to represent the EU on foreign affairs in virtually any form. (Viktor Orbán had tried to draw a parallel with an outdated case using a distortion when speaking to a Swiss newspaper.) Permanent representatives of EU countries have also been in talks on the matter. With one exception, none of them accepted the Hungarian government's explanation, and the Council's legal service is of the opinion that blurring the lines when it comes to the presidency and the "peace mission" is a violation of EU law.

The Foreign Affairs Council is the only council forum which is not chaired by the rotating presidency, but by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Borrell specifically stressed that the forthcoming Association Council meeting with Israel will also be chaired by him and not Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó, saying that "it is important that the Israeli government, especially the foreign minister, knows how this works".

Informal Council meetings are organised in the country holding the rotating presidency. Several member state ministers have announced that they are boycotting the Budapest meetings or have plans to do so (i.e. their country will only be represented at a lower level), and Borrell is considering having an official meeting organized for the same dates as the next informal foreign affairs meeting which would be held at the end of August in the Hungarian capital. The move would effectively be a boycott of the informal meeting, as ministers cannot be in two places at once, and formal meetings – like Monday's – are held in Brussels. When asked about this on Monday, Borrell said that the next step would depend on the member states' assessment of the day, but that in principle, it is up to him to decide when to call meetings for.