A report published in the Belgian newspaper De Tijd on Thursday revealed that the Hungarian intelligence service has for years been using a secret spy network in the European Union institutions in Brussels.
The report is the result of months of investigation by De Tijd, together with Direkt36, a nonprofit investigative journalism center in Hungary; Paper Trail Media, a German collective; Der Spiegel, a German news magazine; and Der Standard, an Austrian newspaper.
It is based on a range of sources, including insiders from the Hungarian intelligence service and permanent representation, as well as EU officials who had dealt with the spies themselves.
Later on Thursday, Reuters news agency reported that a European Commission spokesperson announced that the Commission had voted to open an investigation into allegations that Hungary was spying on European institutions.
What did the report allege?
The report mentions a Hungarian working for the European Commission, who it does not identify. He initially saw no problem in meeting up with his compatriot, identified only as “V.” by the publications, every three or six months. V. was a diplomat at Hungary’s permanent representation to the European Union, where he officially worked on economic and financial dossiers.
The meetings, usually in a Brussels park, took place between 2015 and 2017. They continued until V. presented the civil servant with an official document that he had to sign. While still working for the Commission, he would start working as a “secret agent” for the Hungarian intelligence service, the Informacios Hivatal (IH), which means “information office.” This could be done in exchange for payment.
The Commission official was shocked and politely but firmly declined the offer. Not only did he dislike the way in which the intelligence service wanted to recruit him, with a signed document, but he also disliked the fact that, in his view, this was not in Hungary’s interests, but rather in the interests of “a power clique, or even a single person,” referring to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Russian-style espionage
Building such secret networks within European institutions is more commonly associated with hostile nations such as Russia or China rather than EU member states.
A decade ago, IH intelligence officers in Brussels began working undercover whiled designated as diplomats, which offers them greater protection and freedom. This is a modus operandi for many intelligence agencies but countries such as Russia are particularly notorious for it.
It is striking that the Hungarian intelligence service categorizes its moles in the EU institutions according to old Soviet KGB designations. Those who agree verbally are called “trusted domestic contacts,” while those who sign an agreement fall into the category of “secret collaborators.”
Was the current EU commissioner a spy master?
According to journalists, the current European Commissioner responsible for health and animal welfare, Oliver Varhelyi, was found to be aggressively supervising these activities.
Varhelyi headed the Hungarian Permanent Representation to the EU when V. worked as a diplomat in Brussels. The reporters’ sources claimed to have no doubt that Varhelyi, in that capacity, knew that undercover intelligence officers were present in his diplomatic corps.
According to an insider, Varhelyi also “visited the IH leadership [in Budapest] on several occasions and gave presentations on EU affairs.” And the investigators allege that it was under his leadership at the EU representation, from 2015 to the end of 2019, that the practices of Hungarian spy diplomats in Brussels became so aggressive.
Edited by: Mark Hallam
