GRECO finds shortcomings in Hungarian regulations regarding top executive functions

Hungary has been upgraded from globally unsatisfactory to adequate in the compliance report of GRECO, the anti-corruption monitoring body of the Council of Europe. The body has recommended more than two dozen measures for Hungary, Népszava reports. GRECO, a 46-nation European organisation not directly linked to the EU, published its 2022 report on Thursday and adopted an evaluation report on Hungary this week.

According to GRECO, most of the measures aiming to prevent corruption in Hungary are targeting low and mid-level officials. There is no code of conduct for top government officials, nor do they have to comply with rules on lobbying, accepting gifts and invitations. GRECO considers the usefulness of asset declarations to be limited because these are filled in manually and there is little oversight.

Last year, – just as it did for several years before – Hungary received a "globally unsatisfactory" rating. By this year, half of the previous recommendations concerning MPs, judges and prosecutors have been partially or fully met. According to Népszava, GRECO's analysis of the Hungarian government's status report sent in January 2023 found that a third of the recommendations had been fully implemented, the same number partially implemented and a third not implemented at all.

This was enough for Hungary to receive a passing score,

even though the reform of the judicial system, for example, was partly the result of EU pressure.

In spite of this GRECO still regrets – for example – the lack of a code of conduct for members of parliament, the conflict of interest rules pertaining to them, as well as the simplification of the procedure for waiving their immunity. The body also regrets the fact that a minority in Parliament could prevent the election of the successor to the Prosecutor General, who could thus remain in office even after the end of his/her term.

GRECO made 29 recommendations, for instance

• that draft laws should be subject to consultation at the appropriate level;
• requesting data through public interest requests should be faster and more diverse;
• political advisers and the prime ministers' agents should be obliged to make the same declarations as top executive officials;
• the internal investigation mechanism for excessive use of police powers should be reviewed;
• and asset declarations should be reviewed and completed electronically to make them more useable.