Former European Commissioner believes Hungary should be excluded from closed EU meetings for passing information to russia

Former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso believes that Hungary should be excluded from closed EU meetings if it does not provide proper explanations for the transfer of information to the aggressor state of russia.

He said this in an interview with Euronews.

He said that the accusations that Hungary passed confidential information to russia during EU meetings are "very disturbing and cause great concern." In particular, Barroso emphasized the importance of "sincere cooperation between member states."

According to the former EC President, the Hungarian side should first clearly explain the scope of its contacts with the Kremlin, noting that if the explanations "prove insufficient," European Council President António Costa should take measures to exclude Hungary "on some issues."

"The clarifications so far provided by the Hungarian government are not really clarifications," Barroso said.

The former European Commission president said it "raises very important matters of loyalty among member states."

While the bloc can take legal action against countries that violate the duty of sincere cooperation, Barroso said a political or diplomatic approach may be more favorable.

"But beyond the legal measures, it can be more effective politically to show to a country that behaves like that, not respecting the basic principles of decency, that the other countries can move on politically as well," he said.

At the same time, the newspaper notes that this is not the first time Hungary has been in the spotlight for such incidents. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk previously reported that Lithuania had demanded the exclusion of the Hungarian delegation from a NATO meeting in 2019 because of fears that it could have passed classified information to moscow.

José Manuel Barroso served as President of the European Commission for ten years, from 2004 to 2014. At the end of his second term, in an interview, the Vice President of the EC actually proposed to nominate him for an unprecedented third term, which is not prohibited by EU law, and he said that he was not thinking about it. During his presidency, he has focused on EU enlargement, climate change initiatives, and financial regulation.

Hungary's accusations of passing information to russia

It should be noted that the accusation against the Hungarian diplomat was made in the material of The Washington Post. The journalists claimed that for many years, the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán allegedly provided moscow with important access to confidential discussions in the EU, both through physical access of its allies in the Hungarian government and through the penetration of russian hackers into the computer networks of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó confirmed that he regularly holds closed consultations with russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and called it part of normal diplomatic work. Szijjártó added that he talks not only with the russian foreign minister, but also with our American, Turkish, Israeli, Serbian and other partners before and after EU Council meetings.

Meanwhile, according to Politico, European Union countries are increasingly holding closed discussions without Hungary because of concerns that confidential information could be leaked to Russia. 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called it a disgrace that Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó confirmed the transfer of data to his counterpart from the aggressor state of russia, Sergei Lavrov, after the EU Council meetings.