The Netherlands will decide on a meeting-by-meeting basis whether to attend EU events in Hungary rather than a formal boycott, prime minister Dick Schoof has told the Telegraaf.

On Monday the European Commission said senior civil servants rather than top officials will attend informal meetings hosted by Hungary while the country holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

This follows visits by Hungary’s pro-Russian prime minister Viktor Orbán to foreign leaders in Russia, Azerbaijan, China, and the United States in what he called a “peace mission” for Ukraine.

The decision was taken “in light of recent developments marking the start of the Hungarian presidency,” Eric Mamer, chief spokesman for commission president Ursula von der Leyen, said on social media.

Hungary took over the six-month rotating role on July 1.

“It has been made clear that Orbán is not speaking on behalf of the European Union and each member state can decide what they feel to be appropriate,” Schoof told the paper. “We are looking together with other member states on an ad hoc basis how we should respond. There is no formal meeting blockade.”

Sweden’s government said last week that it, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland would not send ministers to government meetings linked to Hungary’s EU presidency. 

VVD MPs, however, are calling for a tougher stand from the Netherlands and Thom van Campen has submitted parliamentary questions about the issue.

“Either you say: we will continue to visit Hungary with our ministers and talk tough to them or you say: this is a red line, Hungary is showing its true intentions, mainly meant for domestic politics,” he told the AD.

The Renew liberal group in the European Parliament wants to go even further and advocates taking away Hungary’s temporary presidency, the paper said.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the largest party PVV, is a close ally of the Hungarian prime minister and recently said the PVV will join his party’s new grouping in the European parliament.