(Bloomberg) -- Hungary’s central bank canceled a high-level conference, the latest collateral damage from the country’s controversial European Union presidency under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The National Bank of Hungary had hoped to piggy-back back on an informal meeting of finance ministers and central bankers — the so-called Ecofin — in Budapest on Sept. 13 and 14 by holding a public event afterwards.
The plan was for a gala on Sunday, Sep. 15, for governors from Austria, Germany, Croatia and Slovenia and then a conference the following day with the online participation of European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.
That event has now been canceled, spokesman Laszlo Szentes told Bloomberg on Thursday, without providing a reason. The meeting will instead probably take place in January — after the end of Hungary’s six-month chairmanship of the EU.
The cancellation follows decisions by a large number of finance ministers and central bank chiefs to stay away from the Ecofin itself to protest Orban’s uncoordinated diplomatic freelancing at the start of Hungary’s presidency of the bloc in July, which included a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The country has since faced dwindling high-level participation at ministerial meetings it is hosting in the second half of 2024. The European Commission, the EU’s executive, also won’t send a commissioner to Budapest.
--With assistance from Marton Kasnyik.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
