Almost Half of EU Members Wanted to Hold Top Diplomats Meeting in Hungary

At this week's EU Foreign Affairs Council, countries of the European Union were divided on the matter of where to hold the next gathering of the bloc's foreign ministers, with almost half preferring Budapest instead of Brussels, which was picked by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Politico reported on Tuesday.

On Monday, Borrell said that the next meeting of the foreign ministers would be held in Brussels, not Budapest, due to Hungary's position on Ukraine. 

In total, 13 countries said that they preferred to meet in Budapest, while five others, especially states in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, said that they would boycott the gathering in the Hungarian capital., according to Politico. In the end, Borrell picked Brussels in a move that aims to "send a signal, even if it is a symbolic signal," to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the newspaper added.