Top EU officials boycott meetings held by Hungary

European commissioners will boycott informal meetings held by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and will be represented by lower-level bureaucratics until Hungary heads with the EU.

The decision was made after Orban met with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and China's leader, Xi Jinping.

“In the continuation of recent developments, marking the beginning of the Hungarian Presidency, [European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen] has decided that the Commission will be represented at the level of top civil servants during informal [European] Council meetings”, wrote on the X platform. Eric Mamer, senior spokesman for von der Leyenne.

The college visit to the [Hungarian] Presidency will not be realised”, he added.

The college is the European Commission leadership and consists of 27 commissionors.

Hungary protested the decision. European Affairs Minister Yianos Boca accused the Commission of choosing the institutions and member states he wants to work with.

The EU Commission cannot choose which institutions and member states want to co-operate with. Are all decisions of the Commission now based on political considerations?”, Boca wrote on X.

The Commission's decision comes after an unconfirmed report in Politico that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell plans to gather the bloc's foreign ministers for the Council's official “ ” meeting at the same time that Hungary has planned a similar meeting in August.

Orban, whose country assumed the EU presidency on 1 July, travelled to Moscow on 5 July and then to China, apparently to discuss the end of the war in Ukraine with Putin and Xia.

But he did not inform the EU in advance and the EU distanced himself from his travels.

Orban, who has maintained friendly relations with Putin, has been constantly at odds with the rest of the EU, expressing his objections to sanctions against Russia due to Ukraine's invasion.