(Telestock) – Most of the finance ministers and the governors of central banks of the euro area and the European Union have boycotted the informal meetings of Eurogroup and Ecofin, organized in Budapest by the Hungarian rotating presidency. Undersecretaries, vice-governors or senior officials were sent to represent them, following the European Commission of Ursula von der Leyen, which had already decided weeks ago not to have the Eurocommissioners participate in meetings in the country.
A position taken, that of Brussels, decidedly clear to mark the distances with respect to the diplomatic initiatives taken independently by the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, on the war in Ukraine. And in particular after his visit in July to Moscow, to meet the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Giancarlo Giorgetti was the only minister present from the four largest economies of the Eurozone and the EU, while Italy holds the presidency of the G7. For the Bank of Italy, the director general, Luigi Federico Signorini, was present.
Via a message via Xthe Mef reported that during the meetings he spoke “of macroeconomic and fiscal developments and forecasts”, that he provided “an update on the work of the G7 under the Italian presidency”, and that he also spoke “of support for countries in difficulty and green transition”. While these meetings usually see a long series of statements on the sidelines by ministers and governors, this time the only one to express himself in front of the cameras was Maltese Clyde Caruana: “I am here, I have always been a good friend of the Hungarian finance minister and there is no reason not to be present”. Also present were the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde (at the morning meetings, but absent from the group photo in the afternoon), of the Eurogroup, Pascal Donohoe, the director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, the director of the ESM, Pierre Gramegna and the secretary general of the OECD, Mathias Cormann. However, the European Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, and the Vice-President of the Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, were absent.
At the final press conference of the presidency, the host, the Minister of Finance Michael Varga However, he tried to mix things up by talking about meetings that “proved to be a success in all respects. Both in terms of participants – he claimed – and in terms of the ideas that were expressed”.