STRASBOURG — The European Commission will speak to the Hungarian government about reports of alleged historic spying conducted from its embassy in Brussels, the EU’s anti-fraud Commissioner Piotr Serafin told MEPs on Wednesday.
Several outlets reported earlier this month that Hungarian intelligence officials from Viktor Orbán’s government had pretended to be diplomats and tried to recruit EU staffers as spies between 2012 and 2018.
Serafin told MEPs in Strasbourg that the alleged incidents “undermine the principle of loyal cooperation between member states and EU institutions.”
“Even though the investigations have not yet been fully completed, I can assure you that the Commission will raise its concerns with the Hungarian government at all levels,” he said.
But he stopped short of sharing details of the Commission’s broader investigation, saying confidentiality is needed to “ensure the integrity of the investigation.”
Some lawmakers had argued in the plenary’s debate on the scandal that the Commission should suspend Hungary’s commissioner, Oliver Várhelyi, who has the health portfolio.
Várhelyi has drawn scrutiny because he was Hungary’s ambassador to the EU for part of the time the spy network was alleged to have operated from the embassy.
There is no suggestion that Várhelyi was involved in any alleged espionage, and he has told Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that he was “not aware” of supposed efforts by Orbán’s government to recruit spies in Brussels, according to a Commission spokesperson.
But Sophie Wilmès, an MEP from the centrist Renew group, said the EU executive should have suspended the commissioner “at least [while] waiting to shed some light on the matter.”
“If the Commission isn’t going to act responsibly,” she said, then it’s “up to Parliament to do so, and that is why we would support the creation of a committee of inquiry immediately to deal with these issues.”
Adrián Vázquez Lázara, a lawmaker from the center-right European People’s Party, also said he was “rather surprised” that Várhelyi hasn’t been “relieved of his duties pending the outcome of the investigation. I thought that was a minimum, the least we could expect, isn’t it?”
But right-wing MEPs in the chamber said the furor had been sparked by anonymous claims with the aim of undermining Hungary’s upcoming parliamentary election.
“What’s Várhelyi’s biggest sin?” asked Hungarian parliamentarian Patryk Jaki from the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group.
“He has a different set of opinions than the set of correct opinions.”
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