Concealed witness heard on Hungarian espionage case in closed session of EP committee

One of the European Parliament's (EP) specialised committees discussed behind closed doors the "allegations of Hungarian espionage in EU institutions" at its Wednesday meeting.

As the article by Direkt36 previously revealed, several European Commission employees had been approached by intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover at the Hungarian Permanent Representation (ÁK) to the EU, among others, with the goal of attempting to rewrite Commission drafts. Between 2015 and 2019, the ÁK was headed by Olivér Várhelyi, who was afterwards delegated by the Hungarian government to the European Commission.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen had personally questioned Várhelyi about the case, who claimed that he had no knowledge of such espionage. János Lázár, who oversaw intelligence as a minister during the period in question, at first said that he did not remember exactly what had happened back then, but added that if it was as Direkt36 had written, then Hungarian intelligence agents would deserve a medal for their work. He later called the claim a fairy tale, saying, “Some idiot made up some nonsense and turned it into a newspaper article.” However, Péter Magyar, president of the Tisza Party and MEP, who also worked at the ÁK for a period, claimed that “it was common knowledge at the ÁK in Brussels that secret service agents were stationed there during János Lázár’s term as minister from 2015 to 2018.”

The EP has previously addressed the issue at its plenary session. As we reported at the time, the chair of the EP’s committee on democracy indicated that the matter would be discussed separately by an expert body.

That pertaining period of Wednesday's session was a closed meeting, so it was not broadcast, but EUrologus said it had gained some insight into what happened based on conversations on site.

One of the sources of the blog said—and this was later confirmed to EUrologus by others too—that one of the people mentioned in the article was interviewed online, without having their name disclosed or their face shown. According to the blog, this person is an employee of one of the EU institutions who was also approached by the spies and who recounted their experiences, essentially corroborating the account in the article.

Although András László, one of Fidesz's MEPs declined to discuss details with EUrologus, citing that it was a closed meeting, he did confirm in a Wednesday Facebook post that they had indeed heard testimony from an anonymous witness online. "We didn't know their name, we didn't know what their job was," the representative said, adding that "we heard a 25-minute, uninformative report." László found the whole thing ridiculous, and said the meeting "could easily have been public" because, in his opinion, no new information was presented and (despite the previous promise of the chair of the committee) no journalists were present.

According to the information gathered by EUrologus, the debate occasionally turned into a tit-for-tat between Hungarian government- and opposition party MEPs. The atmosphere was particularly tense between Fidesz representatives and the vice-chair of the committee, Csaba Molnár of the DK. "All I can say is that I had a heated exchange with Fidesz MEPs who are willing to defend their circles even if they have to lie," Molnár wrote on Facebook after the meeting. According to him, the question is not "whether espionage against EU institutions has taken place, because we already know that it has," as it has been confirmed by "the statements of the Commission employees who were to be recruited," but rather where the information ended up.

According to the sources of EUrologus, left-wing MEPs continue to push for a separate committee of inquiry, but as we reported earlier, the spokesperson for the biggest center-right faction, the European People's Party, has indicated that they do not support this. Without the EPP, neither the MEPs to their left nor those to their right have an absolute majority on their own, which means that there is little chance of a separate committee being set up.

"We maintain our previous initiative to set up a separate committee of inquiry on this matter in the European Parliament. I hope that the MEPs from Tisza will also support this and will persuade their own faction," the European People's Party, "to vote in favor of setting up the committee," Molnár wrote in his post on Wednesday.