Dutch PM will decide on boycotting Hungary-arranged EU meetings per occasion

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof wants to consider per occasion whether the Netherlands will boycott European Union meetings organized by Hungary, the current EU President.

The European Commission has decided to boycott meetings organized by Hungary in Budapest. For the time being, it will only send civil servants to these meetings instead of European Commissioners. The Commission’s decision stems from frustration over Hungary’s lack of consultation about recent diplomatic trips Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made to Russia and China, among others.

The Netherlands does not want to go that far. “Orbán made it clear that he was not speaking on behalf of the European Union,” Schoof said in Luxembourg about Orbán’s travels. “Bilaterally, any country can do whatever it wants.” Whether the Netherlands will skip EU meetings will be assessed “together with other EU member states” and “on a case-by-case basis,” Schoof said.

Schoof visited Prime Minister Luc Frieden in Luxembourg and consulted with him about a possible Benelux course on various political issues. Frieden was more certain afterward: he was against boycotting Hungarian meetings. “In a democracy, people talk to each other,” Frieden said. He also thinks “our position will be better conveyed if we go to Hungary and talk clearly to the Hungarians about our values.”

Last week, Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp referred to those different views while speaking about the best way to deal with Hungary at the NATO summit in Washington. “There are also colleagues who say: you shouldn’t go” to such meetings convened by Hungary, he said about an announced boycott by a large number of Northern European countries. Veldkamp first wanted to discuss the matter with the other EU member states. He expected that meeting to take place this week.

The fact that the Netherlands, unlike many other member states, has not made a decision is not because the coalition parties PVV and VVD think very differently about Hungary, Veldkamp assured. “I have not noticed any divisions in the Cabinet yet.”

PVV leader Geert Wilders and Orbán have been close allies for years. The majority of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, is very critical of the Hungarian Prime Minister.