In a letter dated Tuesday 16 July, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, reminded the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, that the “rotating Presidency of the EU Council has no role in representing the Union on the international stage and has received no mandate from the European Council to commit itself on behalf of the Union”.
The Hungarian Prime Minister has been criticised for travelling to Russia and China on a ‘peace mission’.
Mr Michel pointed out that the EU’s position on Ukraine had been adopted by consensus within the European Council and confirmed in June. He warned that he would “not accept” Mr Orbán’s assertion that the EU had pursued a ‘pro-war policy’. “Quite the opposite. Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine the victim, exercising its legitimate right to self-defence”, he stressed.
The President of the European Council also stressed once again that no discussion on Ukraine could take place without Ukraine. “The EU has always sought to mobilise broad international support for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, based on the UN Charter and international law, in line with the key principles and objectives of the Ukrainian peace formula”, Mr Michel recalled, adding that the EU had spared “no effort to reach out” to all partners in this respect, including China. “The most direct route to peace is for Russia to withdraw all its forces from Ukraine and to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the United Nations Charter”, explained the President of the European Council. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)