Fed up with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s constant obstructionism on Ukraine, his fellow EU leaders plan to punish him by giving his country a weak portfolio in the next European Commission, three diplomats familiar with the discussions told POLITICO.
Hungary wants to keep the enlargement job, which has significant influence because of EU talks on Ukrainian accession into the bloc, but national governments have no appetite for Budapest’s current commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi (or any other Hungarian) continuing in such a major role, the three diplomats said.
Orbán is consistently Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the EU and Europe’s leaders are increasingly exasperated with his foot-dragging on sanctions and his opposition to delivering funds to Kyiv.
There is hardly “even a question” of Hungary being allowed to keep control of any powerful brief, said one envoy, who like the others, was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks between EU countries.
The European Commission said governments and the next president-elect of the Commission had to choose the next commissioners and it would not “pre-empt their decisions.”
Orbán has made attempts to block aid to Ukraine and has threatened its accession talks in recent months. In July, the Hungarians will also take on the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, giving them powers to set the agenda.
Still, the Central European nation remains hopeful Várhelyi will stay in his post, which he has held since 2019 after being put forward by Orbán and taking charge of the bloc’s efforts to bring new members on board.
But Várhelyi has been accused of undermining policy towards EU candidate states, creating confusion in a recent standoff with Georgia over the South Caucasus country’s widely-condemned “foreign agent” law, which is widely seen as a way for Tbilisi’s ruling party to clamp down on opposition media, activists and NGOs.
Budapest previously attempted to introduce its own version of the Russsian-style rules, coming up against opposition from Brussels and European legal institutions.
“After the disaster this time round with Várhelyi and the way Orbán is taking on [Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen, there is no way she will hand over anything important [to] someone close to him,” said the same envoy.
Neither Várhelyi’s office nor the Hungarian Foreign Ministry responded to requests for comment.
A fourth diplomat previously raised concerns over Várhelyi’s role in accession talks, given Hungary has openly opposed Ukraine’s membership.
“That’s what we get for putting the fox in charge of the henhouse,” the envoy told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook.
Várhelyi’s appointment five years ago was widely seen as a peace offering to keep Hungary’s right-wing government on side in Brussels, similarly to how the increasingly Euroskeptic U.K. was handed a top economic role prior in 2014 to Brexit, after Conservative leader David Cameron had promised a referendum in 2013.
Earlier this week, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis called on Hungary to stop holding up a multi-million euro military package for Kyiv. Days before, Landsbergis told POLITICO Budapest was behind Europe’s inability to present coherent positions on the war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion.
“Almost all of our discussions and needed solutions and decisions by [the] EU are being blocked by just one country,” he said.
Barbara Moens, Camille Gijs and Jakob Hanke Vela contributed reporting.
Hungary can kiss goodbye to a top job in Brussels
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