The European Parliament has added a debate on a proposed peace summit in Budapest to its agenda this week. The summit, announced on October 16th, would bring together U.S. president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. A Budapest meeting would mark the second summit between the two leaders this year, following an inconclusive Alaska meeting in August.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has held telephone conversations with both Trump and Putin regarding the summit, while Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó discussed details with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
Several EU countries welcomed the summit plan with reservations, reflecting unease over Hungary’s position on Ukraine. Many pro-war, Brussels-based lawmakers, however, criticized the choice of Budapest as a venue and expressed skepticism toward diplomatic solutions.
The debate in the European Parliament is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and will include representatives from both the Council of the European Union and the European Commission. The official title of the discussion is “The need for unified support for Ukraine and a just and lasting peace based on Ukrainian conditions, European values and the rejection of Vladimir Putin’s demands, ahead of the planned Budapest summit.”
Hungarian MEP Csaba Dömötör reacted to the agenda decision, noting that the debate is expected to be highly critical. “I would have been surprised if they hadn’t put the Budapest peace talks on the agenda. But they did,” he said.
Balázs Orbán, the political director of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also commented on X, noting that the idea of a Budapest peace summit “clearly unsettles Brussels.” He lamented that EU institutions, “acting as one side’s agent, reject the prospect of peace and prefer criticism over participation—a path that only isolates Europe further.”
Whether the European Parliament will issue an official resolution on the Budapest summit is still undecided.
