A Hungarian-based think tank closely tied to Viktor Orbán has been blamed for violating EU lobbying guidelines by not declaring its funding. MCC Brussels has not disclosed its financial status and funding sources despite lobbying within the European Union since 2022, the advocacy agency Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) stated in its complaint.
The think tank is affiliated with Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), an organization that has obtained more than $1.3 billion in Hungarian state funding, especially via a 10 percent stake in the country’s national oil corporation. MCC is headed by Viktor Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán, who has stated: “It is our goal for Hungary to become an intellectual powerhouse, in which MCC plays a key role.”
In 2020, Orbán’s government issued MCC a 10 percent stake in Hungarian oil group MOL, a 10 percent stake in the pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter, as well as $462 million in cash, and $9 million in belongings.
In 2023, MCC acquired €50 million in payouts from MOL, a company that receives 65 percent of its oil from Russia, according to an analysis by German broadcaster ZDF.
EU leaders have been urged by MCC Brussels to “ditch the net zero madness” and have allowed anti-green groups from across Europe to convene over the past year.
“After decades of undermining democracy in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has set up a very comprehensive propaganda machine for exporting his authoritarian politics,”
CEO says in its complaint.
“With democracy in Europe being under severe attack by authoritarian forces from inside and outside Europe, the financial disclosure obligations of the EU Transparency Register must be strongly enforced to avoid secretive financial flows boosting the activities of organisations like MCC Brussels.”
As stipulated by European Union guidelines, all organisations lobbying within the union must disclose information on their activities via the EU Transparency Register. Non-commercial bodies such as MCC Brussels are obligated to declare their lobbying budgets and any grant over €10,000 that represents more than 10 percent of their total spend.
When MCC Brussels was launched, chair Balázs Orbán remarked that MCC Brussels would “attempt to acquaint European policymakers with its distinct approach toward the political, socioeconomic, and cultural issues of our time”, and it issued a briefing in January 2023 advocating for “a total overhaul of EU policies” on regulation and innovation.
European Union regulations state that any group “organising or participating in meetings, conferences or events” or “preparing or commissioning policy and position papers” must be listed on the transparency register. “The fact that they only joined the transparency register as late as in January 2024 does not justify bypassing basic transparency obligations,” the CEO wrote in his complaint.
