I venture to say, IF ostracism is the objective, setting Orban loose is not the brightest strategy. Idle hands, enemies closer, and all that.

MEANWHILE...

LeChatGPT | Bardella heads Patriots for Europe, EU Parliament's third-largest group,
10 July "sovereignist and populist parties of the Old Continent"

On Monday, July 8, the French far-right [EPP] party announced that it was joining the Patriots for Europe. Jordan Bardella took over the presidency of this new alliance, which now numbers 84 MEPs representing 12 nationalities, compared with 188 for the Christian Democrats of the European People's Party (EPP) and 136 for the Social Democrats (S&D). Still, it has placed ahead of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), another far-right group, more Atlanticist < wipes tears > than the Patriots and pro-Ukraine < wipes tears >, dominated by Fratelli d'Italia, the post-fascist < wipes tears > party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The liberals of Renew, which includes French President Emmanuel Macron's party, have been relegated to fifth place.
[...]

Viktor Orbán's trip to Moscow in breach of EU treaties, legal service says

The EU's legal service told member states on Wednesday that Orbán's actions had violated the bloc's treaties [?] that forbid any "measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the Union's objectives", according to three people familiar with the matter. He also violated a legal provision that calls on all members to perform foreign policy activities "unreservedly in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity", they added.

archive EU lawmakers pitch sweeping treaty reform

"This was a political mistake to go to Moscow," European Council president Charles Michel [European Council president], who represents the EU's 27 members, told the Financial Times. "In 10 years, I have never seen such a severe reaction from 26 other countries to the actions of one country… a yellow card."

Michel said he had met Orbán at the NATO summit and was in touch with the other EU leaders to decide how to proceed.

"With an attempt to divide the union… we have to avoid falling into a trap," said Michel. "We don't want to punish ourselves in a collateral effect of trying to punish someone.…Let's be smart."

ft |Charles Michel to step down early as European Council president (07.01.24)
ft | Charles Michel abandons plan to run in European parliament elections (26.01.24)

Many EU member states have discussed boycotting the traditional, informal, ministerial meetings to be held in Hungary during the country's presidency, several diplomats told the FT. A smaller group of capitals has also begun informal discussions on how to use the EU treaty to restrict Orbán's room for manoeuvre during the presidency.

Orbán, the EU's most pro-Russian leader, inherited [sic] the largely ceremonial six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council Council of the European Union on July 1. Four days later, he flew to Moscow and discussed a half-baked peace plan with Putin, outraging [] EU [] NATO allies.

european-union.europa.eu | Presidents—European Council, European Commission, Council of the European Union

[...]
Belgian caretaker Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, whose country held the rotating [Council of the European Union] presidency before Hungary, told the Financial Times: "When we did the handover, Orbán told me that he would do everything to ensure continuity and not undermine the results of the Belgian EU [sic] presidency, and it's obvious that's not what he is doing. The way he is behaving is clearly not in line with the treaties."

euronews | Belgian PM De Croo announces resignation after heavy election loss (10.06.24)

"Unity is the precondition to be strong, to have influence. When we are divided, we are weak," Charles Michel, president of the EU[ropean] Council—and the person actually mandated to speak on behalf of the 27 states—said in an interview yesterday in Washington.

"If there is an attempt to divide us, it is not the first time," Michel said. "We must ensure that the other 26 would stick to the official EU position and would not be divided by any attempt to instill doubts or some curious ideas."

uh oh. Hungary's Orban Will Visit Trump in Florida After 75th NATO Summit, 9-11 July 2024

on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter®, less than a week after he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The visit is likely to fan concerns that the Hungarian leader is working as an intermediary between Putin and Trump.[...] Orban also paid a visit this week to President Xi Jinping in China, following a trip to Azerbaijan earlier this month.

azernews.az | Viktor Orban arrives in Azerbaijan (05.07.24): "to attend the Informal Summit of the Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS)"
dailysabah | Erdoğan, Orban meet in US in bid for global peace (10.07.24)

Trump campaign spokespeople didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for the Hungarian government didn't immediately comment.
[...]
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CBS News's "Face the Nation" on Sunday that Orban "made it clear when he came to Moscow that he didn't go there on behalf of NATO."

"Different NATO allies interact with Moscow in different ways," he added.

Centrist forces are in talks to block the two newly-formed far-right groupings from being appointed to high-profile positions in the European Parliament, a spokesperson for the European People's Party (EPP) confirmed on Friday.
[...]
On Friday, the ECR censured the [center-right EPP] centrists' imminent move to block the far-right.

"If a cordon sanitaire were drawn around some far-right [EPP] groups, it could discriminate some 30 million voters," Michael Strauss, the ECR spokesperson said. "The parliament is about representatives of nation-states and societies with all their differences," Strauss added. "We think that its task is to include the voices of all elected representatives in parliamentary activities, not to exclude those that displease a given majority."

deutschlandfunkkultur.de | Baerbock: "No matter what my german voters think" - Patzer oder klare Haltung? (02.09.22)

In response, a spokesperson for the Greens/EFA group—which is currently weighing up whether to support von der Leyen in her re-appointment vote next week—said: "The far right are not democrats, so talking about democracy is a little bit rich. They should be approached differently."

"We're still acting like this is a one-party state, which for pretty much 20, 25 years it has been," Democratic Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine

188 EPP
136 S&D
= 304 (57 short of simple majority MEP endorsement)
+ 077 RENEW (obviates mime troupe)

low-rent EP sideshow

euronews | European Parliament inaugural plenary, 15 July

How many of her own European People's Party will abstain in the vote? Can she rely on support from allies in Socialists and the Liberals? Will the Greens' 53 MEPs decide she is the best chance they have to further their agenda?

The incumbent president will need a simple majority (361 votes out of 720) and currently relies on the votes of the pro-EU coalition consisting of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), EU socialists (S&D) and liberal Renew, while the Greens have also expressed their will to join on conditions. If the members of these political groups vote for her, von der Leyen will have a safe majority, but as the vote is secret, defections cannot be ruled out.

[...]
Although the founders of the EU may not have envisioned it as a feminist initiative, they effectively created one by promoting collaboration over competition, sharing power and fostering a regional order that transcends rivalry among shifting continental powers by addressing inequalities between countries and within countries.

archive Global Gateway UPDATE!

And if those principles have worked for us—why not take them further? Why not extend those principles also to our dealings with others? Quite apart from the fact that it is high time to move beyond our (neo)colonialist, exploitative traditions and tendencies, maybe the president-nominee should also bear in mind the well-known African proverb: if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
[...]

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock talked up the prospect of closer political ties with Senegal and the Ivory Coast, in the latest attempt by a senior EU politician to rebuild the bloc's political influence in West Africa.

archive AES (19.05.24)

[...]
The EU has marked out both countries as potential partners on migration and defence and security after being kicked out by the Sahelian juntas, with European Council president Charles Michel visiting both states in April.

lesahel.org | Diplomacy: Russia welcomes the creation of the "Confederation of the States of the Sahel, 16 July

The Europan Commission, meanwhile, is providing Ivory Coast with funding to help its cocoa sector, which supplies around 40 percent of the world's cocoa beans, most of which goes to the EU, adjust to the bloc's new laws on anti-deforestation.