Hungary takes over Council Presidency
On Monday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (Mr) officially took over the duties of the Council Presidency in Brussels.
The handover ceremony took place between the Prime Ministers of Belgium and Hungary; the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Ml) held the EU Council Presidency since 1 January. EU ministers from Hungary were also present at the negotiations János Boka (3rd from right) and Ambassador Bálint Ódor (r.) from the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU. Also present at the ceremony was Hungary’s President Tamás Sulyok together with his wife Zsuzsanna Nagy.
In tandem with Michel
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán then consulted with EU Council President Charles Michel, whose term of office officially expires at the end of November. His successor was already elected at the EU summit in Brussels last week with broad consensus among the heads of state and government: on December 1, former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa will be sworn in as President of the European Council.
Meeting with Zelensky?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was one of the first to congratulate the Hungarian Council Presidency. Ukraine would like to support Hungary in effectively promoting European values and interests and strengthening the EU, he wrote on the X platform. There are rumors in Kyiv that an official meeting between Viktor Orbán and Volodymyr Zelensky could take place as early as this week, after Orbán approached the Ukrainian president at the EU summit last week, which surprised some observers. These rumors were confirmed on Tuesday morning, when Prime Minister Viktor Orbán – officially in his capacity as chairman of the Council Presidency and with the aim of advancing peace efforts – was received by Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
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