Estonia Would Withdraw Hungary’s Voting Rights in the EU

On Friday, Estonia proposed the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights in the European Union in reaction to Hungary’s proposal to remove certain Russian individuals from the EU’s sanctions list, reports Körkép.sk.

Estonia’s Foreign Minister, Margus Tsahkna, accused Hungary of systematically undermining Europe’s security interests and called for proceedings under Article 7 of the EU Treaty, which could ultimately lead to the withdrawal of voting rights.

Without an agreement, sanctions on some 2,200 Russians would have expired at midnight on Saturday, reports Table Media. Margus Tsahkna said that “for political reasons, Hungary made the extension of sanctions conditional on the removal of Russian businessmen Viatcheslav Kantor, Mikhail Degtyarev, and Gulbakhor Ismailova from the sanctions list,” according to a statement on the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website.

Due to the threat of a Hungarian veto, the EU finally agreed to remove seven names from the sanctions list, including businessmen Dmitry Mazepin, Mikhail Fridman, and Pyotr Aven, writes Körkép.sk.

Margus Tsahkna is the leader of the ultra-liberal EESTI 200 party, and is known to have been the main speaker at one of George Soros’s Open Society Foundation events in New York last year.

In 2024, he also celebrated flying the LGBTQ flag at Estonian embassies and the Foreign Ministry in Tallinn saying, “Today, the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our missions across the world are flying the rainbow flag to remind us that no one should be discriminated or persecuted for their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Via Körkép.sk, Table Media, Republic of Estonia Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Featured photo via multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/Philippe STIRNWEISS