An article by Yveta Cermakova and Edvard Vavra
In the Cold War, the capital of Austria was much more than a quaint city full of history and pride. Vienna could not be the biggest city of a country truly neutral, as many of the world’s intelligence services operated agents there in order to gather information. As the Iron Curtain fell and other institutions emerged, this European center of espionage changed. As hard as a pill it is to swallow, nowadays it is Brussels, capital of Belgium, housing many offices of the European Union and the headquarters of NATO. Brussels, where behind the pleasant chit-chats there are few genuine friendships and a lot of agendas. We have consulted people working for the EU and others in the service of various European intelligence organizations to put together the complete picture about Brussels, the new center of espionage in Europe.
The Place du Luxembourg. A truly vibrant part of downtown Brussels with many little restaurants, bars and an unusual crowd most Thursday evenings. Guests are wearing formal office clothing, many of them still hanging their badges out of their pockets as they had just got off work, with Thursday ending their week. These customers are office workers of the European Union’s many institutions who come together here to kick back and relax before having to go back to their respective home countries the next day, and return again on Monday or Sunday – some of them later to be reimbursed by the EU for these regular trips.
Many voices fill the air with glasses clinking and hundreds of people talking about their past or next week or other experiences. If somebody has good eyes and an eager pair of ears, it is not surprising that gossip or pretty serious information is up for grabs from people unknowingly sharing their names and photos and exact employment data via the still-dangling badges.
The “Plux”, as the square is informally known, could have been the place for meetings that took place between Hungarian EU officials and V., a member of the Hungarian intelligence service. A thorough research by German daily newspaper SPIEGEL, Belgian newspaper De Tijd and Hungarian investigative portal Direkt36 published last week uncovered the dealings of Hungarian secret services towards the European Union, an international organization they themselves are members of. In addition to the person providing details to that report, our sources in the field of intelligence who were active in Brussels – and agreed to talk us on the condition of anonimity – at the time spoke of two additional individuals employed by the European commission with the initials of KD and GG.
Stories like these are truly unheard of but according to the intelligence professionals we managed to talked to have said that this does not mean this is not a usual way of working. On the contrary, it is “basically routine.”
It is very telling about these activities that a Belgian counter-intelligence officer told Politico in 2022 that 20-30 percent of the staff of certain Permanent Representations could be cooperating with intelligence agencies, or could be spies themselves. In connection with this, a German parliamentary report from 2013 stated that of the 3300 entities the BND – Germany’s foreign intelligence service – was monitoring at the time, around 1100 were foreign representations of the EU or the NATO.
Brussels: A Land of Opportunities… And Information
The Plux is truly an important place in the lives of many as most of the journalists covering European issues also dine and chat with EU officials there but since the square is very well-connected – for example by Bus Line 12 which goes towards the headquarters of NATO – military and intelligence officers also use it as a meeting point. Our sources confirmed that such exchange of information is an integral part of day-to-day activities. It is most natural that many countries want to know about the ideas, solutions and knowledge floating around, including some or all member states.
Hungary was unsurprisingly one of them, especially ever since the stark disagreements between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. As Orban has been relentlessly trying to further his „illiberal” agenda, many times against the increasingly hardened rule-of-law mentality of von der Leyen, Hungary has been increasingly isolated but still wanted to stay ahead, partly by actively recruiting assets in the ranks of EU institutions, including a person with the initials MH, a Hungarian working for the Commission.
According to our sources familiar with the time detailed by SPIEGEL, De Tijd and Direkt36, MH was an active part of the information exchange on the Plux and after some time, was approached by Chinese intelligence officials. Frightened of this, MH asked for the help of Hungarian spies who eventually distanced him from the Chinese spies. MH was grateful but also saw the new-found support of Hungary’s intelligence agency as a springboard for his own career so he started to share confidential information about his work with them. When he felt his cooperation with Hungarian intelligence could be a liability for his aspirations, he turned his contact in.
Information is Key… Or a Diversion
An oft-overlooked point about such stories is the fact that these organizations strive to work in total secrecy. Whenever something „gets out”, it is not without agenda and thus is somehow controlled by the very organization or a set of individuals in their own favour, or against their adversaries. By any means, such stories thematized by the press is never the full story and are thus to be taken with a pinch of salt at the best.
Since there is nothing extraordinary about intelligence services sprawling a single neighbourhood of a European capital, what truly is unique concerning the Hungarian case is its afterlife. During the years which SPIEGEL, De Tijd and Direkt36 covered, the Hungarian Permanent Representation had a senior worker who has since turned out to be the biggest rival he once represented: Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar.
As Brussels-based news portal EUObserver has pointed out, as then-chief of staff for Hungarian representative-turned-EU Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi Magyar was not vary of Hungarian intelligence actively working in Brussels but now has chosen to distance himself from such beliefs.
