Hungary on Monday accused the EU Fee of cherry choosing after it mentioned it could not ship its commissioners to casual conferences organised by the Hungarian EU presidency, successfully downgrading the EU government physique’s participation.
The transfer comes after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump final week and earlier made shock visits to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing on a self-styled “peace mission”, sparking criticism amongst EU member states.
Hungary will maintain the rotating EU presidency for six months till Dec. 31.
“The EU is a world organisation constituted by its member states. The EU Fee is an establishment of the EU,” mentioned Hungarian Minister for European Affairs Janos Boka on the social media platform X.
“The EU Fee can not cherry decide establishments and member states it needs to cooperate with. Are all Fee choices now based mostly on political issues?” he added.
A spokesperson for the European Fee had mentioned earlier the establishment wouldn’t ship specialist commissioners to casual conferences organised by the Hungarian EU presidency.
“In gentle of latest developments marking the beginning of the Hungarian Presidency, the (EU Fee) President (Ursula von der Leyen) has determined that (the EU Fee) can be represented at senior civil servant degree solely throughout casual conferences of the Council”, Eric Mamer, spokesman for the European Fee president, mentioned on X.
“The School go to to the Presidency is not going to happen”, he added.
The choice, which Mamer famous in a separate message to journalists just isn’t restricted in time, successfully downgrades the EU Fee’s participation as specialist commissioners for the coverage space below dialogue usually attend EU ministerial conferences.
Kinga Gal, EU lawmaker and vice chairman of Orban’s Fidesz social gathering, mentioned the transfer was a part of von der Leyen’s election marketing campaign.
“Now we have grow to be used to her utilizing the EU establishments, particularly towards Hungary, for political blackmail and stress,” she mentioned on X. “That is unacceptable and goes towards the very essence of European cooperation.”
Von der Leyen is making an attempt to safe assist from a majority of EU lawmakers in a vote on Thursday to win a second time period in her position.
Final week, the Swedish authorities mentioned Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden is not going to ship ministers to authorities conferences linked to Hungary’s EU presidency this month in a protest at Orban’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Swedish Minister for EU Affairs Jessika Roswall mentioned that the nations can be represented solely by civil servants and that further EU member nations have been discussing related actions.
