In order to clarify the situation regarding the Altus issue, the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office János Lázár has written a letter to the European Commission’s Director General Walter Deffaa, and the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker’s Head of Cabinet Martin Selmayr. Following reporters’ questions and requests made at the press conference “Government Info” on 23 April, the Prime Minister’s Office has made the letters available to the public.

The task of inspecting the functioning of development policy in Hungary for the 2014–2020 programming period has been entrusted by the European Commission to an auditing company (Altus Zrt.) which is owned by a former prime minister of Hungary, who now leads a political party with active parliamentary representation and ambitions to govern. Furthermore, members of the company were founders and operators of Hungary’s previous development policy system, which was also criticised by the European Union. In the light of this, the four-person company cannot be relied on to provide an objective and unbiased opinion. The unusually high fee and certain personal relationships of the company’s personnel raise questions related to political and legal conflicts of interest, illegal party funding, and the European Commission’s principle of party neutrality.

(Prime Minister's Office)