Hungary submits bill to establish anti-corruption office

Hungary's government has submitted legislation to parliament to establish a new anti-corruption body, delivering on a campaign promise by Prime Minister Peter Magyar to create an independent institution to investigate alleged graft during the administration of his predecessor, Viktor Orban.

Magyar, whose landslide victory in April ended Orban's 16-year tenure in office, presented the proposed National Asset Protection and Recovery Office as a cornerstone of his anti-corruption initiative, dubbed "Operation Purgatory," Caliber.Az reports, citing Reuters.

Orban has consistently rejected allegations of corruption.

The Hungarian leader has argued that corruption and the alleged misuse of public funds have cost the country between 8% and 10% of its gross domestic product in recent years.

"The premise of the regulation is that the vulnerability of public assets is not only a financial but also a democratic risk," the bill published on parliament's website states.

According to the draft legislation, the office's mission is "to uncover past abuses and to prevent future violations".

The new body would be responsible for identifying, tracing and recovering assets that were unlawfully removed from public ownership, while also examining the management of state assets.

Under the proposal, the institution would be headed by a president and four deputies, three of whom must be prosecutors. Their appointments would require parliamentary approval.

Earlier on Friday, the president of the European Commission announced that Hungary would join the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO).

The same day, the Council of the European Union approved Hungary's national recovery plan, advancing efforts to unlock around €10 billion ($11.43 billion) in EU funds that had previously been frozen over concerns related to corruption.

"All good things come in threes. EU funds and the prosecutor's office, tick. And just now we submitted the law on the National Asset Protection and Recovery Office," Magyar wrote in a Facebook post.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov