The behavior and scandalous statements of Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán led to the fact that the so-called "Bucharest Nine" intend to limit the participation of official Budapest.
Points of attention
- The behavior and statements of Hungary may lead to the limitation of official Budapest's participation in the Bucharest Nine.
- The Belgian authorities are calling for consideration of the possibility of depriving Hungary of the right to vote in the European Union due to a violation of EU principles.
- Probably, the last meeting of the Bucharest Nine with Hungary will soon take place due to the conflicting position of Budapest.
Hungary continues to lose influence in the European political arena
What is important to understand is that the "Bucharest Nine" (B9) is a format for security cooperation between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
As the Financial Times learned from its insiders, the members of this alliance are actively considering whether to exclude Hungary from the next meetings because everyone is fed up with Viktor Orbán and his team's antics.
For example, recently, official Budapest blocked a joint final communique that mentioned increasing military aid to Ukraine or supporting its future membership in NATO.
What is important to understand is that on June 11, B9 leaders will hold an official meeting in Latvia, in Riga. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will also attend.
According to anonymous sources, Hungary again began to demand changes to the draft communique, which everyone else already supported.
Discussions about excluding Budapest are "very serious". Perhaps this is the last meeting in this format, — said one of the insiders.
Hungary may be deprived of the right to vote in the European Union
On June 3, it became officially known that Belgium, which currently presides over the EU Council on a rotating basis, calls on the governments of the EU countries to consider the possibility of starting the procedure of depriving Hungary of the right to vote.
With such a proposal came the chief of Belgian diplomacy, Hadja Lahbib.
She called for applying the no-confidence procedure against Hungary under Article 7 of the EU Treaty.
We have a Europe that is struggling to move forward and, unfortunately, some states — one state in particular — are increasingly taking a position of blocking and vetoing… I think we should have the courage to make a decision: go to end of article 7, to activate Article 7 to the end, which provides for the termination of the right of veto, the diplomat stressed.
