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No boycott of Hungary: Minister Van Weel to Budapest

by AI | 19.Jul 2024 | Europe in brief AI

The Netherlands does not boycott the next meeting of EU ministers in Hungary. Other EU countries do, and government parties VVD and NSC are pushing for it. They want to punish Hungary for the unilateral ‘peace talks’ with, among others, the Kremlin.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last year at an earlier meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Grigory SYSOYEV / POOL / AFP

WOODSTOCK – The Dutch Minister David van Weel of Justice and Security (VVD) will go to an informal ministerial meeting in the Hungarian capital Budapest on Monday. Various parties in the European Union and also within Van Weel’s own VVD are now calling for a boycott of Hungary due to the solo actions of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. But according to Prime Minister Dick Schoof “there has been no discussion about this in the cabinet”.

“This line has actually been the line of the Netherlands all week,” says Schoof on the sidelines of the summit of the European Political Community in English Woodstock. According to Schoof, the cabinet makes a pragmatic choice and looks at the EU agenda “per meeting”. In doing so, “the interest of the Netherlands” is weighed.

Schoof doesn’t mind that there are different ideas within the Dutch government and in parliament about how to respond to Hungary. “It is up to parliament to choose its own position and up to the cabinet to choose our position. The government governs, the parliament controls.”

The chairman of the EU leaders, Charles Michel, spoke out against a boycott of Hungary on Thursday due to Orbán’s ‘peace mission’ to Moscow and Beijing, among other places. According to Michel, relations in Europe will worsen if the EU responds to Orbán’s provocations. The European Commission and some other EU countries have announced a boycott.

(July 18, 2024)