{"id":77975,"date":"2026-05-08T14:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/77975\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T14:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:40:11","slug":"eu-clears-hungarys-varhelyi-in-brussels-spying-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/77975\/","title":{"rendered":"EU clears Hungary\u2019s V\u00e1rhelyi in Brussels spying probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n         Published on<br \/>\n            08\/05\/2026 &#8211; 16:34 GMT+2\n            <\/p>\n<p>The European Commission has cleared Hungarian Commissioner Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi of allegations linked to a reported spying network that targeted Commission staff, closing an internal investigation without finding evidence of individual wrongdoing. <\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\" width=\"72\" height=\"72\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n          ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\" width=\"72\" height=\"72\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n          ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>The announcement came a day before Hungary\u2019s incoming Prime Minister, P\u00e9ter Magyar, is due to take office following his landslide election victory last month.<\/p>\n<p>The decision means V\u00e1rhelyi can remain in his role as EU Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare.<\/p>\n<p>In October, several media outlets reported that Hungary\u2019s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels had run a network of intelligence officers posing as diplomats who targeted the Commission&#8217;s Hungarian staff between 2012 and 2018. <\/p>\n<p>The operatives were allegedly seeking sensitive files related to Hungary and attempting to recruit Hungarian EU officials.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission launched an internal investigation, which has now concluded. A spokesman said there was no evidence that any Commission staff had been successfully recruited.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Based on the information gathered during this investigation and with the tools that we have at our disposal within the Commission, it is not possible to attribute individual responsibility or involvement beyond that of the intelligence officers themselves,&#8221; Commission spokesman Bal\u00e1zs Ujv\u00e1ri said.<\/p>\n<p>V\u00e1rhelyi was drawn into the probe because he served as Hungary\u2019s ambassador to the EU between 2015 and 2019, during part of the period under investigation. He was later nominated as EU Commissioner by then-Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, V\u00e1rhelyi denied any knowledge of the alleged network. He reportedly told Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that he \u201cwas not aware\u201d of the activities.<\/p>\n<p>During his time as ambassador, relations between Budapest and Brussels deteriorated sharply amid disputes over the rule of law, democracy and media freedom in Hungary.<\/p>\n<p>V\u00e1rhelyi is widely seen as a close ally of Orb\u00e1n, whose Fidesz party lost last month\u2019s election. He has also regularly attended events organised by the Patriots for Europe, a far-right political group.<\/p>\n<p>Magyar, who himself served as a diplomat at the Hungarian Permanent Representation in Brussels between 2011 and 2015, said in October that V\u00e1rhelyi &#8220;did not reveal the whole truth&#8221; about the spying allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 08\/05\/2026 &#8211; 16:34 GMT+2 The European Commission has cleared Hungarian Commissioner Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi of allegations linked&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,210,2610,9899,31928],"class_list":{"0":"post-77975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-brussels","10":"tag-european-commission","11":"tag-hungary-parliamentary-elections-2026","12":"tag-oliver-varhelyi"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116539479173083540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}