BRUSSELS — Hungary’s moment on the EU stage is increasingly playing to empty seats.
On Tuesday, at least six countries refused to send their senior ministers to a Hungarian-hosted gathering of energy officials in Budapest. The development came just hours after the European Commission, the EU’s executive in Brussels, told its own top officials to skip similar meetings.
The reason? Anger over Viktor Orbán’s plans to grab headlines, using the EU’s rotating presidency as his platform.
The Hungarian leader’s country assumed the post at the start of July, giving Budapest power to set the bloc’s agenda and host a string of meetings with other European officials until the year’s end. But Orbán immediately used the presidency for his own self-declared “peace mission,” zooming to Moscow, Beijing and Washington for cozy chats with the country’s leaders (or Donald Trump, in the U.S. case). Since then, he’s been pushing Russia-friendly talking points about the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
In recent weeks, a growing number of countries have started to pull out of a series of informal EU gatherings in Budapest, a symbolic show of protest that could — in theory, if perhaps not in reality — restrict Hungary from advancing its policy agenda across several areas.
By Tuesday, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Sweden had all confirmed to POLITICO that they wouldn’t send their senior ministers to such informal gatherings in Budapest this month. Latvia and Slovenia also said they were contemplating it, or deciding on a case-by-case basis. Budapest is holding scores of informal meetings this month on everything from saving the planet to funding the EU.
“Member states have considerably lowered their level of participation,” said a senior European diplomat, granted anonymity to speak frankly about the standoff. “Hungary should not have been allowed to assume the role of the presidency.”
Estonia and its Baltic neighbors have been among the EU’s most hawkish countries on Russia. Finland also shares a long border with Russia, prompting the country to join the NATO military alliance after the Kremlin launched its Ukraine invasion.
“With its actions, Hungary has abused its role as the Presidency of the Council of the European Union and thereby seriously damaged its credibility in the eyes of other member states,” an Estonian official told POLITICO.
The soft boycott may hinder Hungary’s presidency plans. On Tuesday, for instance, the Hungarians were hoping to promote geothermal power, an industry vital to its own economy.
Yet the strategy is far from an aggressive one — and certainly won’t stop Budapest from using the platform to trumpet its stances and rally domestic support over yet another battle with the EU.
The quiet protest has been building for a few weeks. Sweden was one of the first countries last week to publicly announce it was pulling out of the July meetings.
“The Hungarian actions during the presidency are harmful and must have consequences,” Jessika Roswall, Sweden’s EU affairs minister, said in a statement, hinting a handful of other countries may follow.
And they have — kind of. A Latvian official said this week that Orbán’s visits were “unacceptable” and “undermine the unity of the EU,” but that Latvia’s participation in informal meetings would be considered “on a case-by-case basis, depending on needs and priorities.” Slovenia, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that the government would discuss joining the protest.
A group of European Parliament members has even demanded that the EU strip Hungary of its voting rights, arguing that Orbán had “already caused significant damage by exploiting and abusing the role of the Council Presidency.”
But it’s also occasionally been unclear whether countries are actively sending lower-profile officials in protest, or whether it’s just a matter of senior ministers skipping an informal summer meeting where no major decisions are scheduled.
On Tuesday, the EU’s top representative at the energy ministers’ meeting was relatively muted about the Commission’s decision to hold back its most senior officials.
“We are here representing the Commission, that’s what we are representing today,” said Mechthild Wörsdörfer, deputy director-general for the Commission’s energy department.
Other staunch Ukraine allies in the EU, such as Poland, have continued to send their top officials to Hungary’s gatherings. Polish Energy Minister Krzysztof Bolesta was among those on the red carpet for Tuesday’s meeting, shaking hands and joking with his Hungarian counterpart.
Hungarian Energy Minister Csaba Lantos said he was “glad” despite the diminished turnout. “With this very hot summer, it is a good time for holidays. I’m not sad at all.”
Speaking to POLITICO, a Hungarian official also maintained that the lack of top-tier political representation wouldn’t derail Budapest’s agenda. “According to the information at our disposal, all delegations have appropriate professional competence and political authority to do so.”
On X, Hungary’s Minister for European Union Affairs János Bóka was blunter. The EU, he said, “cannot cherry pick institutions & [EU member countries] it wants to cooperate with.”
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