Earlier this month, Budapest published details of new visa rules that grant citizens of eight countries, including Russia and Belarus, permission to enter Hungary without security checks.
Budapest noted that many of these citizens will be involved in building a nuclear reactor using Russian technology.
Manfred Weber, the chairman of the European People’s Party, has written a letter to the European Council president, Charles Michel, raising concerns about Hungary’s “questionable” new fast-track visa system for Russians.
Weber said this could “create grave loopholes for espionage activities, and potentially allow large numbers of Russians to enter Hungary with minimal supervision, posing a serious risk to national security”.
Budapest’s move could also help Russians to travel around Europe’s borderless Schengen zone, and bypass “the restrictions required by EU law”, he added.
‘Stringent measures’ urged
Weber called on EU leaders “to adopt the most stringent measures to immediately protect the integrity of the Schengen area”.
Under EU law, people from outside the bloc have to apply for a visa to be able to travel freely inside the Schengen zone, which covers 29 countries including Norway and Switzerland. However, national governments have the right to manage their own immigration systems and work permits.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine at the start of 2022, the EU has imposed sanctions including travel bans and asset freezes on hundreds of Russian individuals who have connections to the Kremlin.
Russian citizens can still move around the EU if they possess a visa and have no ties to Putin, but their movements are hampered because airlines based in Russia are not allowed to fly into the bloc.
At the end of November 2022, Ukrainian authorities arrested a Russian agent on the Ukraine-Hungary border as he attempted to smuggle a flash drive with secret information hidden in his anus, according Balkan Insight, an investigative online media outlet.
The drive contained sensitive information on senior staff at the Ukrainian security services, as well as about Ukrainian military bases and logistics. The spy had intended to hand this over to the Russian embassy in Budapest, Balkan Insight reported.
Soured relationship
Hungary’s relationship with Europe has soured since Budapest assumed the rotating presidency of the EU on July 1.
Shortly after taking the helm, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, embarked on visits to Ukraine and Russia to allegedly broker a peace deal.
The trips were widely criticized. The European Commission responded with a boycott of meetings between high-level EU officials and Hungary, while members of the European Parliament called for the country to be stripped of its voting rights at the EU Council.
