EU moves key ministers' meeting from Budapest to Brussels

BRUSSELS

The EU will hold its next meeting of foreign and defence ministers in Brussels instead of Budapest in a "symbolic" slapdown to Hungary for its rogue diplomacy on Ukraine, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said.

The shift of location for the Aug. 28-30 meeting is a reputational blow to Hungary just weeks after it took up the rotating European Union presidency.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has infuriated almost all his EU partners by conducting breakaway diplomacy with Moscow to explore the path to ending Russia's war in Ukraine.

Orban, who is Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest ally in the bloc, has also accused the EU of having a "pro-war policy" by maintaining military and financial support for Kiev.

He has repeatedly stalled Brussels' efforts to punish the Kremlin and to aid Ukraine in its fight against the invading forces.

"I can say that all member states - with one single exception - are very much critical about this behaviour," Borrell said after chairing an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.

“We have to send a signal, even if it is a symbolic signal" to Hungary, Borrell said.

Thus, "I think it was much more appropriate to show this feeling and to call for the next foreign and defence council meetings in Brussels," he said.

The change of venues drew swift condemnation from Budapest.

"What a fantastic response they have come up with," Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on Facebook.

"I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but it feels like being in a kindergarten."

Borrell said 25 of Hungary's 26 EU partner countries on Julu 22 criticised Orban's rogue initiative, which Budapest has billed as a "peace mission."

Only Slovakia backed Hungary's position.