Applicants for Hungary’s National Card will go through “the same migration and security screenings as applicants for any other residence permit,” Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for government communications, said on Facebook on Wednesday.
Kovács responded to European concerns suggesting that the Hungarian program could offer “easy access for Russian and Belarusian spies”, and dismissed suggestions of Hungary hosting such spies as “fiction”. Kovács said the cards could be obtained for a stay between 90 days and two years, for employment purposes, adding that the applicant was required to have an employer and an actual position. Holders of the card need to reapply if they change their job, he added.
The state secretary also noted that the National Card program had been in place “for quite some time”, yet, it had not received criticism from the EU. “If it was all right earlier, why are we getting attacked now, while the regulations and the practice have been unchanged?” he asked. Citing Eurostat figures, Kovács said over 718,000 Russian citizens had been staying in the EU in January 2023, with fewer than one percent of that group in Hungary, adding that “the same ratio” applied to Belarusian nationals. In view of those figures “Brussels’ worries about Russian spies in Hungary” seem “a bit unrealistic”. He also added that “huge masses of Russians” lived in the Baltic states, which he said were “most critical of Hungary’s National Card system and the alleged risks around it”.