Meloni and Orbán display united front ahead of EU leaders’ summit

Good morning. Yesterday some legal gymnastics saw the EU bypass a Hungarian veto on getting cash to Ukraine. Today we reveal that is the first of a new arsenal of tactics that the other 26 capitals are rolling out against Budapest’s blackmail.

Today, our Rome bureau chief reports from last night’s meeting between Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni. And we reveal the latest probe into the European Commission’s questionable job appointment policies.

Alignment

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni may have gotten the cold shoulder at last week’s dinner of EU leaders. But she displayed her strong relations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Rome last night, as she expressed Italy’s “full support” for his political leadership of Europe over the next six months, writes Amy Kazmin.

Context: Hungary assumes the rotating EU presidency on July 1, and Orbán is visiting a number of EU capitals to seek the support of key European leaders for his political agenda, which is being packaged under the slogan “Make Europe Great Again”. Paris is next on the agenda.

Meloni and Orbán, the EU’s two most prominent right-wing leaders, are old friends. But their encounter yesterday evening took place in particular circumstances, as Meloni presses to make her influence felt in Brussels through the allocation of top jobs and policy priorities in the next legislature.

Her hard-right European political family, the European Conservatives and Reformists, now claims to be the third-largest group in the new European parliament — displacing the liberals, though the groups are still competing to attract new members.

But Orbán yesterday ruled out his Fidesz party joining Meloni’s ECR. “We cannot be part of a political family which includes a Romanian party that is anti-Hungarian,” Orbán said, with reference to the nationalist AUR party that last week joined the ECR.

“This is a position that was really clear,” he said, but added that they would nevertheless co-operate with the various parties of the right, even without being part of the same political family.

Addressing the media after their talks, Meloni expressed support for the issues on which Hungary intends to focus: Europe’s demographic challenges because of the collapse of birth rates; the situation in the Balkans; European competitiveness and the attempt to control irregular migration to Europe.

While Meloni is expected to support a second term for the incumbent commission president Ursula von der Leyen at a summit at the end of the week, her support won’t come for free.

Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Institute of International Affairs, said Meloni and Orbán were “trying to figure out what is the quid pro quo” in the relationship.

“They are coordinating in order to strengthen the voice of the nationalist right in Europe,” Tocci said.

Chart du jour: Keep calm

French share prices have plunged and borrowing costs have soared as the election nears. But the head of Europe’s largest stock exchange says investors are overreacting — and that extremist ideas won’t become economic reality. 

Nepo, baby

The EU ombudsman has given the European Commission a rap on the knuckles for committing “maladministration” by appointing someone not sufficiently qualified for a job, writes Andy Bounds.

Context: The EU ombudsman launched an inquiry into the appointment of a Latvian to an economics job in Malta, for which “good command of Maltese” was a required skill — which the candidate did not have. Maltese MEP Alex Agius Saliba first raised questions about the appointment in 2022.

The complaint then reached EU ombudsman Emily O’Reilly, who has found two counts of maladministration in the matter, to be published today.

In a letter to commission president Ursula von der Leyen, O’Reilly said her institution “had breached the rules of the selection procedure”.

The administrative watchdog urged the commission to rerun the process, but the commission refused, saying that the person was already in post and could learn Maltese instead.

Saliba said he was pleased with the ruling but regretted “that the commission will not take any further actions to address this issue of maladministration”.

It is not the first time von der Leyen’s appointments have caused controversy. Markus Pieper, a retiring German MEP from her CDU party, won the job of SME envoy in January, although two other candidates scored higher in tests. Pieper decided to walk away after the criticism.

But it seems von der Leyen’s commission has not learnt from its mistakes. O’Reilly also castigated it for not complying with deadlines in the investigation, saying that this “risks creating a negative public perception of the Commission’s adherence to standards that it, and EU law, demands of others”.

The commission said that “the candidate selected best met the required expertise and qualifications”, and added that future vacancy notices for similar posts now only refer to national language skills as an “asset”.

What to watch today

1. EU general affairs ministers meet in Luxembourg.

Now read these

• Historic step: Ukraine will formally begin accession talks to join the EU today, after more than a decade of spilled blood for the cause.

• Bad bank: The EU’s public prosecutor is investigating the former head of the European Investment Bank, Werner Hoyer, for corruption.

• Promises, promises: French far-right leader Jordan Bardella has sought to reassure investors who fret over Rassemblement National’s spending plans.