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Dutch Prime Minister Schoof: review boycott of Hungarian EU meeting each time

by AI | 16.Jul 2024 | Europe in brief AI

The Netherlands is not in favor of an overall boycott of every meeting that Hungary organizes in Budapest.

Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof. Photo: Ramon Van Flymen/ANP/dpa

LUXEMBOURG/WASHINGTON (ANP) – The Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof wants to assess whether the Netherlands will boycott EU meetings organized by Hungary on a case-by-case basis.

The European Commission is proceeding with such a boycott of Hungary’s meetings in Budapest. The Commission has decided to temporarily send only officials to the meetings instead of EU commissioners. The Commission’s decision stems from frustration over the lack of consultation by temporary EU President Hungary regarding recent diplomatic trips by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to, among other places, Russia and China.

But the Netherlands does not want to go that far. “Orbán made it clear that he was not speaking on behalf of the European Union,” Schoof said in Luxembourg about Orbán’s trips. “Bilaterally, each country can do what it wants.” Whether the Netherlands will skip EU meetings, the Netherlands will assess “together with other EU member states” and “on a case-by-case basis,” Schoof said.

Schoof visited Prime Minister Luc Frieden in Luxembourg and consulted with him about a possible Benelux course on various political issues. Afterward, Frieden was more determined: he is against a boycott of Hungarian meetings. “In a democracy, people talk to each other,” Frieden said. He also thinks “that our point of view comes across better if we do go to Hungary and clearly talk to the Hungarians about our values.”

The Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp referred last week to the NATO summit in Washington to precisely that difference in views on the best way to deal with Hungary. “There are also colleagues who say: you should go to such meetings organized by Hungary,” he said at the time about an announced boycott by a significant number of Northern European countries. Veldkamp first wanted to discuss this further with the other EU member states. He expected that consultation to take place this week.

That the Netherlands, unlike many other member states, is not yet making a decision is not because, for example, the PVV and VVD have very different views on Hungary, Veldkamp assured. “I have not noticed any division in the cabinet.”

PVV leader Geert Wilders and Orbán have been close allies for years. The vast majority of the House of Representatives is very critical of the Hungarian Prime Minister.

(July 15, 2024)