Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi said the European Union is “rife” with corruption, and the “champions of the rule of law” should learn to take care of their own affairs before lecturing member states.
Hidvéghi said at a plenary debate on a report on access to public documents between 2019 and 2021 that corruption cases were “abundant” in Brussels. Discussions on the adherence to the rule of law in the European Parliament and European Commission and other EU bodies are “few and far between”, Hidvéghi told the plenary. He added that the state of the rule of law there is rarely discussed. Meanwhile, “in the past months, we witnessed the largest corruption case of all time,” where a Vice-President and a member of the EP “was lead off in handcuffs,” he said. He insisted that other top EC officials were also discovered to have abused their power. Those officials accepted gifts and financial contributions in “an unacceptable and indefensible manner,” he said. The EU has “no legal basis or credibility” to lecture others on the rule of law or fighting corruption until it tackles the problems “in its own back yard”, he said. They should account for all funds and abide by regulations, he said.
Photo credit: fidesz-eu.hu