European Commission Launches Investigation into Hungarian Intelligence Operations in Europe

The European Union is setting up a special group to investigate espionage operations in which Hungary is suspected.

This was announced by the European Commission’s representative Balazs Ujvari during a briefing.

The accusations came after a joint investigation conducted by the Hungarian journalistic group Direkt36 together with the Belgian newspaper De Tijd and the German magazine Der Spiegel.

According to Direkt36, in the 2010s, Hungarian intelligence was so careless in its attempts to recruit Hungarians working for EU institutions in Brussels that the operation was uncovered and the entire agent network was destroyed.

Journalists from Hungary, Belgium, and Germany talked to several employees of European institutions who had been contacted by the Information Bureau.

According to the article, the recruitment attempts took place in 2012-2018, when the Information Bureau was headed by Janos Lazar, who was then the head of the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The Commission takes note of all today’s reports that Hungarian intelligence has carried out espionage operations against the EU and its staff. The Commission takes these allegations very seriously,” the spokesman said.

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in a comment to the local media Index that he was “not aware of such a case” and added that there was no reason to believe that Hungary was increasingly being interpreted in intelligence circles as a “purple country” – a state with a mixed geopolitical orientation.

Hungarian drones in Ukraine

At the end of September, it was reported that the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine released evidence of a violation of airspace by a Hungarian drone.

According to the military, on the morning of September 26, radar detected an aircraft flying over the territory of Zakarpattia region at different altitudes.

Later, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban acknowledged the intrusion of Hungarian drones and said that “2-3 Hungarian drones are not something that Ukraine should be concerned about.”

According to him, Hungary has no intention of attacking Ukraine, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “needs to worry more about the situation in the east.”