A report published in a Belgian newspaper give teased Hungary’s intelligence service has been using a covert spying network into EU institutions in Brussels for years, it was revealed on Thursday.
Report is the result of months of investigation by give teasedwith Direkt36, a non-profit investigative journalism center in Hungary; Paper Trail Media, a German collective; mirrora German news magazine; And StandardAn Austrian newspaper.
It is based on multiple sources, including insiders from Hungary’s intelligence service and permanent representation, as well as EU officials who themselves dealt with spies.
Later on Thursday, Reuters news agency reported that a European Commission spokesman announced that the Commission had voted to open an investigation into allegations that Hungary was spying on European institutions.
What was alleged in the report?
The report cites a Hungarian working for the European Commission, which it does not identify. Initially he saw no problem in meeting his compatriot, identified only as “V”. By publications, every three or six months. V. was a diplomat at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the European Union, where he worked on official economic and financial documents.
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 which he had to sign. While working for the Commission, he would begin working as a “secret agent” for the Hungarian intelligence service, Informácios Hévitel (IH), which means “Information Office.” This may be done in lieu of payment.
The Commission officials were shocked and politely but firmly rejected the proposal. He not only disliked 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, it was not in the interest of Hungary, but in the interest of “a power faction, or even an individual”, referring to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Russian style espionage
The creation of such covert networks within European institutions is usually associated with enemy countries such as Russia or China, rather than with EU member states.
A decade ago, IH intelligence officers in Brussels began working undercover while being designated as diplomats, which affords them greater security and independence. This is a modus operandi for many intelligence agencies but countries like Russia are particularly notorious for it.
It is surprising that the Hungarian intelligence service classifies its colleagues in EU institutions according to the old Soviet KGB designations. People who verbally agree are called “trusted domestic contacts”, while those who sign an agreement fall into the category of “secret associates”.
Was the current EU Commissioner a spy master?
According to journalists, Oliver Varhelyi, the current European Commissioner responsible for health and animal welfare, was found to be aggressively monitoring these activities.
While V. worked as a diplomat in Brussels, Várhelyi headed the Hungarian Permanent Representation to the European Union. The journalists’ sources claimed that there was no doubt that Varhelyi, in that capacity, knew that secret intelligence officers were present in his diplomatic corps.
According to an insider, Varhelyi “also visited IH leadership [in Budapest] on several occasions and made presentations on EU matters.” And 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