Top EU diplomat calls rival meeting in response to Hungary’s rogue diplomacy

Borrell’s decision comes after Ursula von der Leyen said last week that no EU commissioners would attend informal meetings in Hungary in response to Orbán’s freelance diplomacy. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

The EU’s most senior diplomat, Josep Borrell, has called a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Brussels – in effect a boycott of a rival gathering in Budapest – to register widespread anger over Hungary’s rogue diplomacy.

Borrell announced that he had decided to convene informal meetings of EU foreign affairs and defence ministers in Brussels after the summer break, meaning the same participants will not gather in Budapest as originally planned.