Transparency International Hungary holds intl conference on fighting corruption

Budapest, May 5 (MTI) – Transparency International Hungary organised an international conference on fighting corruption in Budapest on Friday.

TI Hungary CEO József Péter Martin said European Union member states should play leading roles in protecting the EU’s financial interests, but authorities are often slow to handle corruption cases and are not effective enough in cracking down on abuses of EU funds.

Citing a report by Europe’s anti-fraud office OLAF, Martin said irregularities surrounding EU finances had cost the bloc 3.2 billion euros in 2015. Hungary has received large amounts of EU funds over the past years, with 90 percent of public investment projects financed from EU money, he said, stressing the importance of the proper handling of EU funds.

He said cooperation between OLAF and Hungary “could be better”, adding that Hungarian authorities were not particularly effective at tackling corruption.

He said the establishment of a European prosecutor would go a long way toward increasing the effectiveness of the fight against corruption, but so far only 16 member states have declared their support for it.

Gábor Zupkó, head of the European Commission’s representation in Budapest, called corruption “one of the biggest societal challenges of our time” which harms both member states and the EU as a whole, while holding back economic growth and undermining trust in legitimate institutions. Corruption can be tackled with the passage of effective laws, but the real key to solving the problem is their implementation, he said.