Germany: Hungary's 12-Days EU Council Presidency ‘Has Already Done Much Damage'

Hungary's presidency of the Council of the European Union has already done a lot of damage, the German Foreign Ministry has said.

This was reported by The Guardian with reference to Reuters.

Budapest took over the EU presidency on a rotating basis on 1 July. Hungary's far-right, pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been stirring up controversy in recent days when he visited Russia, Azerbaijan and China without the support of his EU counterparts.

Yesterday, Orban also met with Donald Trump in Florida and made yet more controversial statements.

"We have to see how Hungary's presidency of the EU Council will continue," said a German ministry spokesman when asked how Berlin plans to respond to Orban's recent diplomatic visits.

"It's day 12, and it's already done a lot of damage," he added.

As reported by The Gaze, Josep Borrell twice made official statements over the weekend about the illegitimacy of Orban's visits to Russia and Azerbaijan in the first days of Hungary's EU presidency. The Hungarian prime minister also met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and discussed the so-called "peace initiative for Ukraine" with him without a mandate for such talks.