Hungary’s Intelligence Services Spied on EU Officials via Embassy, Politico Reports

Hungarian intelligence services used the country’s embassy in Brussels to collect sensitive information and recruit officials working for the European Union.

Politico reported on this, citing an internal European Commission document.

According to the report, the document contains the findings of an investigation led by European Commissioner for Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration Piotr Serafin.

He was tasked with verifying information that Hungarian intelligence officers from the diplomatic mission had attempted to recruit employees of European institutions in the mid-2010s.

According to the document, the Hungarian espionage network operated from 2013 to 2016, with its highest level of activity in 2015. Several officers from the Hungarian intelligence services were assigned to Brussels to work at the diplomatic mission.

The report states that the agents’ activities were initially covert but later became more open and widely known among Hungarian officials working within EU institutions. According to the European Commission, the network’s activities ended in 2016.

The intelligence officers used their diplomatic positions to establish contacts with European Commission officials of Hungarian origin and attempted to obtain information on issues of interest to the Hungarian government.

Meanwhile, Serafin’s investigation was unable to determine individual responsibility for organizing these activities beyond the operatives directly involved.

The document notes that the European Commission has limited tools for conducting such investigations. The Commission also stated that it is not aware of any serious security breaches resulting from the activities of the Hungarian espionage network.

The current European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, Olivér Várhelyi, who headed Hungary’s Permanent Representation to the EU in 2015, previously said that he was unaware of the intelligence officers’ activities and that no one had asked him to pass on classified information.

In March, a NATO spokesperson said the alliance was not surprised by reports that Hungary may have shared confidential information with Russia. The alleged disclosures reportedly included information from closed-door meetings of the Council of the European Union.

Previously, The Washington Post reported that Hungary’s then Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, regularly provided Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with “operational reports on the discussions” held during EU meetings.