(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will attend a meeting of euro-area finance chiefs in Budapest next week, though she’s skipping the broader gathering of European Union officials taking place in the Hungarian capital.
The ECB’s weekly agenda shows her traveling to the so-called Eurogroup on Friday. Yet there’s no mention of her also staying for the subsequent informal Ecofin. Executive Board member Piero Cipollone — who like Lagarde typically participates in these events — isn’t down to be in Budapest.
The move follows decisions by a large number of finance ministers and central bank governors to skip the gathering to protest Prime Minister Viktor 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 European Commission also won’t send a commissioner to Budapest.
It’s unsurprising that the Frankfurt institution is conforming to the stance of the EU executive, not least given Lagarde’s previous expressions of support for Ukraine and her condemnation of Putin’s actions.
Earlier this week, Hungary’s central bank canceled a high-level monetary-policy conference in Budapest that was set to piggy-back on the Ecofin and that Lagarde had been set to take part remotely.
--With assistance from Marilen Martin.
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