EU lawmakers on Wednesday condemned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's recent visit to Russia, stressing that he did not represent the European Union on the trip.
Orban provoked the ire of fellow European leaders when, just days into Hungary taking the helm of the rotating EU presidency he went to Russia on July 5 to see President Vladimir Putin.
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The visit was a "blatant violation of the EU's treaties and common foreign policy," lawmakers said in a resolution passed during the parliament's first session since June elections in the French city of Strasbourg.
Orban did "not represent the EU", they noted in the non-binding resolution.
An attack on a children's hospital in Ukraine the same week, blamed on Russia, showed the "irrelevance" of Orban's alleged peace efforts, the MEPs added.
Orban has insisted he was on a self-styled "peace mission" that sought an end to the war in Ukraine.
The EU sanctioned Moscow after the Russian assault on Ukraine in 2022, but Orban remains Putin's closest ally in the 27-country bloc.
Such was the level of anger over Orban's rogue diplomacy, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Monday ordered top EU officials to skip a series of meetings in Hungary.
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