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Schallenberg against boycott of Hungarian EU Council Presidency

by AI | 10.Jul 2024 | Europe in brief AI

A boycott of the Hungarian EU Council Presidency due to Viktor Orbán’s recent travels is not considered a good idea by Austria’s Foreign Minister. Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler also plans to attend a council meeting on Thursday. However, her Green Party leader sharply criticized Orbán.

Archive image - "I believe that we will work together professionally," Schallenberg said on Wednesday in the Ö1 morning journal. Photo: Barbara Gindl/APA

Vienna/Brussels – Austria’s Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) has spoken out against boycotting the Hungarian EU presidency in protest of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s solo actions. “I believe we will work together professionally,” Schallenberg said Wednesday in the Ö1-Morgenjournal. Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) is also scheduled to attend the informal Environment Council planned for Thursday in Hungary, a spokesman confirmed.

“I am not aware that a meeting was boycotted yesterday,” Schallenberg commented on a newspaper report that government representatives from several EU states had stayed away from a meeting chaired by Hungary on Tuesday. At the same time, the minister criticized Orbán’s trips, labeled as “peace missions,” including one to Kremlin Chief Vladimir Putin, who is under EU sanctions.

“He did not speak on behalf of the European Union. He has no mandate, no order,” Schallenberg emphasized. The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks on behalf of the EU, not Orbán. Orbán undertook a journey “at his own expense” which only concerns Hungary and no one else. Orbán would have to “explain” his trips undertaken without an EU mandate, the minister emphasized. “We should draw clear lines, but also keep things in perspective.”

On Monday, Green Party Leader and Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler was more explicit. In the Ö1-Mittagsjournal, he showed himself to be principally open to taking the presidency away from Hungary, but said, “acute measures, I believe, would bring little benefit. It would make sense in the end, but it needs to be better and more stringently organized for the future,” he said, referring to the complicated procedure that would be necessary for such a step. (10.07.2024)