The Gymnich moves to Brussels in a symbolic way to slam Orban’s misstep

The decision to hold in Brussels the informal Foreign Affairs meeting (“Gymnich”) initially planned to take place in Budapest and scheduled at the end of August will shut down the saga that sparked with the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Russia in early July.

As the High Representative stated during a press conference after the meeting, Ministers analysed for many hours “the statements and actions” of the Hungarian leader, who is helming the works in the EU Council as the government in charge of the rotating presidency.

“Any so-called peace mission that ignores the fundamentals of the freedom and independence of Ukraine is at the end of the day only benefiting Putin”, the High Representative said by addressing journalists after the EU Council meeting.

In total 25 Member States criticised Hungary’s action also in light of its responsibilities as a country leading the rotating presidency and harked back to the duty of loyalty in article 24.3 of the Treaty of European Union which states that “Member States shall support the Union’s external and security policy actively and unreservedly in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity and shall comply with the Union’s action in this area”.

The meeting was a highly-expectation one to put an end to critics and whip the Hungarian presidency actions into shape. The impossible compromise led Borrell during the meeting to send “a symbolic and appropriate signal against the disqualification of the EU foreign policy as considered as a ‘pro-war-oriented one’”.

Borrell also said to have lost hopes that a more than a year long-lasting block on the approval of 6.6 billion euro aid to Ukraine could be overcome. This prevents member states from being partially reimbursed for the supplies they send to Kyiv. The EU diplomacy is now trying to bypass the Hungarian veto by providing a 1.4 billion euro worth tranche arising from windfall profits on Russian assets that have been immobilised after the outbreak of the war on EU soil.

Middle East will keep the EU diplomacy summer agenda “very much busy”, journalists were told. “Humanitarian access, was always difficult, but now has imploded: daily truck crossing into Gaza drop from 193 on average in April to less than 76 in June – less than a half – and 84 during the first two weeks of July”, Borrell said. “There is no way of giving the support that the human beings in Gaza require with this drop in humanitarian support. 96% of Gaza population are acutely food insecure”, he added considering the situation “horrible and unbearable”. The current stage of the war between Israel and Hamas has resulted “in a situation where international law has never been as far as the situation in the ground”, he stressed.

The EU will provide short-term emergency financial support of 400 million in grants and loans to the Palestinian Authority running the West Bank land to address its most pressing financial needs and support its substantial and credible reform agenda. “But we need to act quickly if we want to avoid a whole catastrophe this summer”, Borrell warning the risk of Gaza becoming “a new Mogadishu in the Mediterranean, where war will reign for all and where violence will be a substitute for politics”.

Member States are also supporting the EU’s top diplomacy efforts to organize a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in September to have a debate on a political solution for the war. “But while the International Court of Justice states that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is illegal and it has to end the immediate answer from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is that the land belongs to them”, Borrell added.

“There is a fight between interpretation of history and international law and this is a very critical moment because maybe the war will rage on Lebanon and Yemen”, he further stressed.

Ministers also adopted an assistance measure under the European Peace Facility (Epf) to support the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia worth 10 million euros. “The support aims at enhancing the logistical capabilities of the Armenian Armed Forces and to help improve the protection of civilians in crises and emergencies“.

The meeting was the opportunity for ministers to endorse with a final vote a regulation ensuring that the entire Western Balkans region is subject to the same visa regime. This removes the exclusion previously applied to holders of Serbian passports issued by the Serbian Coordination Directorate.