Lithuanian ministers won’t attend EU meetings over Orbán’s Putin trip

Lithuania will temporarily not send ministers to Hungary for EU meetings after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recently visited Russia without consulting other EU member states.

“For the time being, we have simply decided to limit our participation at a political level in Hungary,” Žygimantas Pavilionis, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Lithuanian parliament in Vilnius, told the BNS agency.

Orbán had recently travelled to Moscow to visit Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin without consulting other EU states, a move that drew strong criticism – including from Lithuania.

Since the beginning of July, Hungary has held the rotating presidency of the European Union, which changes among the 27 EU member states every six months.

This also means that Hungary will hold a series of informal meetings in Budapest and usually bring together the respective ministers of departments from EU countries.

According to the BNS agency, Lithuania does not want to participate at ministerial level, but could possibly send deputy ministers.

It has not yet been decided whether President Gitanas Nausėda will attend an informal EU summit in Budapest, a spokesperson for the presidential chancellery was quoted as saying.

Sweden also announced on Thursday that it will participate in meetings in Hungary during July only at civil servant level.

Hungary’s actions had been harmful, and there had to be consequences, Swedish EU Affairs Minister Jessika Roswall said.

Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Poland are also intending to react to Orbán’s actions in a similar way, according to Roswall.