The European Union has been limiting classified intelligence to Hungary and conducting sensitive diplomacy in smaller groups — quietly, deliberately, and without public announcement. The reason, according to five European diplomats who spoke to POLITICO, is a longstanding concern that Budapest is sharing information with Moscow.

A Washington Post investigation published Saturday made explicit what several European leaders say they had suspected for years: Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó allegedly used breaks during EU meetings to phone his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and brief him on closed-door deliberations.

“Every single EU meeting for years has basically had Moscow behind the table,” one European security official told the Post.

The institutional response predates the report. Concerns about information leakage have driven the proliferation of alternative diplomatic formats — E3, E4, E7, E8, the Weimar Triangle, the Nordic-Baltic Eight, the Joint Expeditionary Force — groupings that exclude Hungary and other member states deemed less reliable.

“The less-than-loyal member states are the main reason why most relevant European diplomacy is now happening in different smaller formats,” one European government official told POLITICO.

An unprecedented breach of trust

The European Commission on Monday called the reports “greatly concerning” and demanded clarifications from Budapest.

“A relationship of trust between member states and between them and the institutions is fundamental for the work of the EU,” Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper told journalists. “We expect the Hungarian government to provide clarifications.”

But there will be no formal EU response before Hungary’s parliamentary election on April 12, according to the five diplomats. Any action now, they cautioned, risks handing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a campaign issue.

Hungary’s Europe Minister János BĂłka dismissed the allegations as “fake news” and “a desperate reaction to Fidesz gaining momentum in the election campaign.” SzijjártĂł accused the media of promoting “conspiracy theories that are more preposterous than anything seen before.”

Orbán himself, in a Facebook post Monday, said he had ordered an investigation into what he called the “wiretapping” of his foreign minister — though the Washington Post report made no mention of wiretapping, instead describing deliberate briefings to Lavrov.

A pattern of restricted access

The alleged leaks have had concrete consequences for how the EU conducts its most sensitive business.

Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said he was warned as early as 2024 that Hungarian officials might be passing information to Russia. Before the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius, envoys moved to exclude Budapest’s delegation from sensitive discussions altogether.

“We would only speak in formal terms, later breaking out to speak without Hungary about the achievables of the summit,” Landsbergis told POLITICO.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has publicly backed Hungarian opposition leader PĂ©ter Magyar, was more direct about his own conduct at EU gatherings.

“The news that Orbán’s people inform Moscow about EU Council meetings in every detail shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone,” Tusk wrote on X. “We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time. That’s one reason why I take the floor only when strictly necessary and say just as much as necessary.”

Between East and West

Hungary occupies an increasingly isolated position within both the EU and NATO. SzijjártĂł has visited Moscow 16 times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — most recently on March 4, when he met with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.

On Thursday, Orbán maintained his veto on the EU’s €90 billion loan package for Ukraine, despite having approved the financing measure at the bloc’s December summit. One diplomat linked the move directly to Budapest’s alignment with Moscow: “Hungary has long been Putin’s ally within the EU and continues to sabotage European security.”

The timing is delicate. Orbán faces his sternest electoral test in years, with Magyar’s Tisza Party leading in opinion polls. Magyar, addressing a campaign rally over the weekend, called the alleged leaks “outright treason.”

“This man has not only betrayed his own country, but Europe as well,” Magyar said.

For now, the EU’s institutional response remains quiet — smaller meeting formats, restricted document circulation, and diplomatic workarounds that treat Hungary as a conditional partner rather than a trusted ally. The question after April 12 is whether that arrangement can continue indefinitely.

Sources