European countries are getting increasingly frustrated with Budapest’s obstructions on Ukraine military aid and Russia sanctions.
Belgium, current holder of the rotating Council of the EU presidency, is taking the extraordinary step of urging EU governments to move ahead with the procedure to deprive Hungary — which takes over the presidency next month — of voting rights.
“We have a Europe that is making difficult headway, with unfortunately some states — one state in particular — increasingly adopting a transactional, blocking and veto attitude,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib told POLITICO in an interview.
She advocated advancing the EU’s Article 7 censure procedure against Budapest — an extreme move that can result in a country having its voting rights suspended.
I know they were trying to explore all possible options before resorting to Article 7, but holy fuck did they take their sweet time, and Ukrainians died (and continue to die) as a result.
Part of the problem is that, until the recent Polish elections, Poland and Hungary had a mutual deal to veto an Article 7 invocation.