StrasbourgcTypeface:> The European Parliament voted in a resolution on Wednesday to condemn Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
With 495 votes in favour, 137 against and 47 abstentions, EU lawmakers said Orbán’s actions were "a blatant violation of the EU’s treaties and common foreign policy,” according to a press release.
Orbán travelled to Moscow just days after Hungary assumed the EU’s rotating presidency at the start of July, on what he said was a "peace mission.” Angry EU leaders however strongly condemned the trip and stressed that Orbán did not have an EU mandate for any negotiations.
The Hungarian prime minister also undertook visits to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in a flurry of diplomacy that caused significant irritation in Brussels. (DPA)