Lithuanian Foreign Minister says Hungarian government defending Putin instead of Europe

Hungary needs to understand that it is isolated, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said, arriving at Thursday's meeting of EU foreign ministers, when asked by 444 about what they expected from symbolic moves such as changing the meeting's location. The informal meeting is usually hosted by the country holding the rotating presidency of the Council, a post which has been held by the Hungarian government since July, but the meeting was called for Brussels instead of Budapest.

On arriving, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell who took the decision to change the location, justified the move by saying that

"some of the positions expressed by the Hungarian government are in direct contradiction with the common foreign policy".

According to Euractiv’s sources, at their meeting prior to Borrell's decision, half of the ministers would have opted for keeping the meeting in Budapest, but five indicated that they would not have travelled to the Hungarian capital.

When asked about the change of venue on his arrival to the meeting, Landsbergis said that this was a clear indication that they did not agree with the way the Hungarian government was treating the presidency. He said that while calling itself pro peace, the Hungarian government is in fact pro-Russian, and defends Russian President Vladimir Putin in the courtroom instead of Europe. Landsbergis considers the change of venue a clear signal that European countries do not agree with Hungary's foreign policy. He also said that the Hungarian government is capable of disrupting EU processes, but it is not and will never be mainstream, and he said that many European countries are waiting for the "rain" brought about by one person to cease.

His Irish colleague called the move a wise decision. For Micheál Martin, it was important that the meeting was held. He agreed that the alternative location was a symbolic signal towards the Hungarian government.

Belgium's foreign minister Hadja Lahbib also backed the decision, saying the presidency should promote a common position instead of running a "parallel diplomacy", which he said had weakened the EU. He called it cynical that the Hungarian government is blocking funds which would be given for military equipment (The Hungarian government has long blocked roughly a €6.5 billion package from which member states can receive a reimbursement for the delivery of military equipment and weapons to non-EU countries. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó has cited various reasons for the blocking, most recently the Ukrainian ban on oil deliveries by Lukoil. Member state ministers, including the Hungarian one, have so far released such payments seven times, at least once with constructive abstention from Hungary.)

Finland's Elina Valtonen "fully agreed" with Borrell's decision to change the venue of the meeting. She hoped that this would show that "there are certain rules" which the country holding the presidency is expected to follow, and that the Hungarian government also needs to pay attention to them.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, on the other hand, said that he opposed changing the venue. According to him, the problem is not with the presidency of one of the parties, and Borrell's decision was clear enough.

Sweden's Tobias Billström stressed that – technically – this was not the same meeting as the one which would have been held in Budapest (such informal meetings of foreign ministers have been called Gymnich for decades, and Thursday's event was simply announced as an informal meeting). He agreed that the decision was a signal to the Hungarian government about Viktor Orbán's trip to Moscow, and stressed that it was not a visit made on behalf of the EU.

“The main thing is not the location. In these times of crisis, the important thing is that we meet and not to argue about who invited us where and when," said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

"Mind-boggling proposals from Brussels on both Ukraine and the Middle East", Péter Szijjártó posted on Facebook during the meeting. The Foreign Minister said that "the High Representative's dangerous rampage must be stopped. We do not want more weapons in Ukraine, we do not want more dead, we do not want an escalation of the war, and we do not want the crisis in the Middle East to escalate. We will continue to stand for common sense and peace today too."

Photo: Council of the European Union / European Union