Parliamentary Minister of State Nándor Csepreghy told Hungarian News Agency MTI on Tuesday that the European Commission is funding an active party politician’s company, and this politician is spending this aid on financing his own party.

Mr. Csepreghy stated the above in reaction to an article on the Hungarian news portal Index, according to which a company (Altus Zrt.) owned by Democratic Coalition (DK) party leader Ferenc Gyurcsány has won another Brussels tender. As a part of the tender – worth 120 million forints – Altus Zrt. will monitor Polish development policy.

According to the Minister of State, it seems that the European Commission has not given up on actively interfering in party financing in an EU Member State.  He questioned the basis for the Commission’s interference. He also wondered about the extent to which the concept of double standards exists in the workings of the Commission, since it – completely lawfully – expects all Member States to decide on the use of public money as carefully as possible.

Yet, in this particular case, Mr. Csepreghy added, “the European Commission is funding the single-member company of a party politician active in Hungary”, and this politician is using the profits from this company to finance his own opposition party.

He also said that the Commission has not resolved the issue by shifting the problem from Budapest to Warsaw; indeed this step can be considered unethical in relation to the Polish government, which is now being formed. He stated that in Poland a political party of the right is forming a government, and “a left-wing party has been commissioned” to monitor its development policy for as long as it is in office. He said that this is unprecedented.

Mr. Csepreghy said that the fact that this issue is on the agenda is further proof that the opposition is involved in “a number of corruption cases”, and “a surprisingly large number of corruption cases can be linked to the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels”. We just have to recall the Béla Kovács case, in which “a very serious party funding problem has occurred”; it is unknown where Jobbik gets the money from. In addition, however, there is a corruption case of a similar type – the Altus case – in which we know exactly where a political group is getting funding from, he pointed out.

(Prime Minister's Office)