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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The European Union’s legal service informed members of the bloc that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent visit to Moscow and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin violated EU treaties, the Financial Times reported on July 11. Nonetheless, despite EU threats to have Hungary stripped of the presidency of the Council of the European Union, Orbán remains committed to his “peace mission” to end the war in Ukraine and even shunned US President Joe Biden to meet with his predecessor instead, Donald Trump.
On July 7, Orbán visited Russia for talks with Putin. The Hungarian prime minister described his visit as a continuation of the “peace mission” he began with a trip to Kiev in early July. Nonetheless, the EU’s legal service told member states on July 10 that Orbán had violated agreements that prohibit “any measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the Union’s objectives,” FT reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
At the same time, the Hungarian leader is said to have violated a provision requiring all members to conduct foreign policy “unreservedly in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity.”
According to sources involved in the investigation, during the NATO summit in Washington on July 10, European leaders were discussing, among other things, a joint letter to Orbán that clarified their objections to his actions and demanded that he stop his independent foreign policy initiative. Another suggestion was a special meeting of EU foreign ministers specifically on the subject.
Some diplomats told the FT that many EU members have also discussed a possible boycott of informal ministerial meetings during Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.
A smaller number of countries have launched informal talks on how to use the EU treaty to limit Orbán’s ability to act during his presidency. Some EU officials have even privately suggested taking the presidency away from Budapest.
Politico reported that Hungary’s EU envoy, Balint Odor, was verbally heckled by his Brussels counterparts like never before.
“It’s unprecedented that the presidency would be reprimanded in such a way by all the others,” a senior EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Since Budapest took over the rotating EU presidency in July, Orbán has undertaken self-declared “peacekeeping missions” to Kiev, Moscow, Beijing, and Washington. However, they were “not conducted in the name of the European Union or any of its institutions,” Hungarian EU Affairs Minister János Bóka stressed at a news conference.
Media outlets reported earlier that Orbán had also sent confidential letters to European Council President Charles Michel and EU leaders detailing his recent trips to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing. Orbán reportedly said that Russia and China hoped that peace talks between Moscow and Kiev would begin by the end of this year.
Hungarian Foreign noted that Orbán met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
“We [Hungary and Turkey] have taken a common position that in the coming times, a peace conference in which both parties to the conflict will participate will be necessary. This is the only opportunity to reach an agreement,” he told M1 television.
Szijjártó also highlighted that the peace conference in Switzerland failed because Russia was not involved, adding: “It is important that the peace conference planned for the second half of this year, whether in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere, involves both sides, Russia and Ukraine, to give the best opportunity to find a solution.”
Although the EU is outraged by Orbán’s peace mission, the Hungarian leader is a realist and has consistently said that Russia has won the war and that Western powers are just prolonging the suffering by continually sending weapons to Ukraine. In fact, he is so much of a realist that he, along with most pollsters, believes Donald Trump will win the US election and, therefore, he decided to fly into Mar-a-Lago on July 11 to discuss the Ukraine situation, effectively shunning Joe Biden by not requesting a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Orbán has not had an official meeting with Biden since he became president nearly four years ago. The Hungarian prime minister met Trump in March this year in Mar-a-Lago and has endorsed him several times throughout the past eight years, even describing the billionaire as a “man of honour.”
It is unlikely that Hungary will be stripped of its presidency of the Council of the European Union, but it does indicate the anger and frustration that Orbán’s peace mission has caused in Brussels. Although the EU desperately wants the Kiev regime to prevail over Russia, a Trump reelection will all but end the war in a relatively short time, and this is the reality that Orbán is working with.
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there goes your western values: no freedom of speech, no freedom press. instead you have intimidation, black mail, dictatorships etc.
eu’s on a suicide mission. i wish them a bon voyage.
look at how many in the eu and nato are the children/grandchildren of wehrmacht ss, nazi and bolshevik elite? many whose families found safe passage courtesy of operation paperclip.
this kallas bitch, daugther of a commi politbyro prick, is a shining example of tgis practice. the same as von den lügen, professional daugther of an old guards (nazi) cdu pokitician.
all of them are just condoms, no decision makers
“-i would not pick vice president trump, if i was not sure he could be a good president”.
didn’t you try to pick off trump today?
when he got his 3 letter agency to raid mar a lago, they were under orders to ‘shoot to kill’ with medical facilities nearby on alert for fatalities/casualties. donald was not at home that day. yesterday, just after biden asked for a ‘bulls eye’ on trump, to change the headlines from bidens and his words, there was an assassination attempt on trump. zelinsky and biden have so much in common.
what is clear is that the lying devious old nazi koryfee, von der lying, has been very quiet recently trying to stem the mutiny within the eu, and trying to find the willing accolytes to get rid of orban. the fact that the lying nazi doesn’t think an attempt to arrange a peace discussion is worth while and it tells us that von der lying is firmly in a) the camp of the dysfunctional states of a and b) supporting the jews wholeheartedly.
so, her plan then is to make sure that both the eu and nato disintegrate simultaneously?
nah she has no plan and follows orders from the great dysfuntional states of and from the jews. and being of old nazi-stock she hates russia more than she hates the uterouses of all women in the eu!
wasn’t she a gynaecologist, prior to becoming a politician? what did her grandfather allegedly do during the war? why do those who believe in eugenics, (planned parenthood founder), find gynaecologists come in handy? donald tusk, his grandfather was also part of the same crowd, together with chrystia freelands (canada) grandfather. their seems to be a pattern.
she’s born albrecht which is a name closely associated with hitlers gang and an errand boy of hitler in der fuhrer bunker was named albrecht and disappeared in april or may 1945 never to be heard from again. probably helped by the vatican to a new life in argentina/
paraguay. her father was supposed to employ old nazis when he was in charge of one of the german subdivision.
victoria nuland, who was made redundant has also been busy. samantha powell, remember her over in the un, just before nicki haley and how she treated vitalie churkin, the russian envoy to the un? obama, sent her to the un, just like nuland served under obama, with biden as his vice. powell is over in hungary and in charge of usaid/regime change budget/programme.
further, disgusting that an unelected nazi is allowed to set the terms for 500 million europeans. only a rope and a noose is suitable for the corrupt old nazi!
well said wally, prepare the gallows!
what, no guillotine?
in fact, she loves france and the only reason why she became the head of ec is that she speaks french . let it be the french way!
she was not even elected by the citizens of europe.
looks like the eu will end up balkanizing itself instead of russia. karma works in mysterious ways.
if the eu did that, it would be one of the best possible things that could happen to hungary long term. brics will treat them much better than the demented inbred oligarchs who need to put fluoride and poison in the food in order to outsmart retards.
i am proud of orban and few others who dare to be a voice of peace and diplomacy trying their best to prevent ww3 between the most powerful countries in the world.
why don’t the kinder fuehrer want peace? trump assassination attempt, fico assassination attempt. georgian politician and political threats of assassination. ukraine confirming the us were funding them for the assassination of president putin. why is ukraine so important to the kinder fuehrer? who wants to make it the 2nd israel?
hats off to viktor. not only has he exposed the grossly zionist sentiment of eu nazis in leadership and media, their hypocrisy, but he’s also exposed the sheer level of childishness present in their actions as well. doesn’t take much to trigger a ‘democrat’… just call for something sane and intelligent, like peace…
where is democracy in the eu? where? you’re not allowed to disagree. you can’t vote otherwise. what is the function of democracy and voting if neither can be used?
no freedom of speech or thought, no democracy… a gestapocracy. the ukrainians are already changing europeans to their own image.