EU lawmakers slam Viktor Orban’s visit to Russia

STRASBOURG - EU lawmakers on July 17 condemned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent visit to Russia, stressing that he did not represent the European Union on the trip.

Mr Orban provoked the ire of fellow European leaders when, just days into Hungary taking the helm of the rotating EU presidency

he went to Russia on July 5 to see President Vladimir Putin.

The visit was a “blatant violation of the EU’s treaties and common foreign policy,” lawmakers said, in a resolution passed during the parliament’s first session

since June elections

in the French city of Strasbourg.

Mr Orban did “not represent the EU”, they noted in the non-binding resolution.

An attack on a children’s hospital in Ukraine

the same week, blamed on Russia, showed the “irrelevance” of Mr Orban’s alleged peace efforts, the MEPs added.

Mr Orban has insisted he was on a self-styled “peace mission” that sought an end to the war in Ukraine.

The EU sanctioned Moscow after the Russian assault on Ukraine in 2022, but Mr Orban remains President Putin’s closest ally in the 27-country bloc.

Such was the level of anger over Mr Orban’s rogue diplomacy, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on July 15 ordered top EU officials to skip a series of meetings in Hungary. AFP