My name is Antoinetta Rossi, and I'm from Politico.

Sorry, I'm just putting this on silent.

A number of news outlets today led by Der Spiegel published an explosive story alleging that Hungarian intelligence officers were posted in

the permanent representation and were trying to befriend commission officials to

then co-opt them to spy on behalf of Hungary or Orban's government.

What is the commission's reaction to this?

A number of reports on that front.

Indeed, the Commission is taking note of course of all the reporting on the subject matter today,

according to which there have been espionage operations pursued by a

Hungarian intelligence service against the EU and members of its staff.

The Commission takes as usual such allegations very seriously, and we remain committed to protecting commission staff,

Commission information and networks from illicit intelligence gathering actions.

Now this is a matter of operational security, which is why, as usual, I won't be able to comment much,

but what I can say is that we will be setting up an internal group to look into these allegations. Thank you, Balazs. On this, subject, yes, please.

I follow up on this because these press reports also say that when this spy network was operational at the permanent representation of Hungary,

the Ambassador was Olivér Várhelyi, who was later a Commissioner and still a Commissioner. So when Mr.

Várhelyi got his security clearance to be a Commissioner,

have you been aware of these allegations?

Look, so members of the college basically when it comes to their act,

they have to follow Article 2 of the code

of conduct and also Article 245 of the treaty.

So in terms of their ethical behavior, this is kind of the framework that they, they have to follow and of course in general it is their responsibility to that they comply with the treaty provisions and the code of conduct and as I said before,

assuming their duties they also undergo a thorough scrutiny process including a hearing before the European Parliament and to answer your specific question,

I don't think we have this type of information. You have a follow up. In the back, sorry.

Another interesting part of this piece was that Hungarian intelligence services were actually able to send a seconded worker here who worked here for a period of time in the security field,

and he or she had access to very Sensitive data,

how is it possible you do not check the background and it was actually reported,

according to these press reports, to the Commission.

How is it possible you do not check the background of these seconded workers?

OK, so I,

I don't have any information about this specific point that you that you raised.

As I said, as a matter of general practice, this is something that we, we look into, but it's an operational security matter,

so other than saying that we are setting up a dedicated group to look into it, I won't be able to comment any further today. Thank you.

Yeah, Antoinette is still on the same topic?

Sorry, just to, can you explain this internal group?

Are you saying you're launching a probe into the Incident.

I said we are looking to set up an internal group.

This is a decision that has been taken.

I have no further information to share at this point in time. Jorge. Mr. Two questions.

The first one is, has the President been informed about the allegations, given the severity that these reports are portraying regarding a member, a sitting member of the College,

and second, that she planned to speak directly with Commissioner Várhelyi to see what happened,

to actually, you know, get his version personally. Thank you. Thank you, Jorge.

Yes, this is the type of information that, that reaches the president, obviously. I don't know.

I cannot tell you about what the president will be doing about this,

but it's it's shared, of course. Magnus Thank you. Also on this.

I understand you've said told Spiegel that Várhelyi has not violated,

has not, has not been guilty of, of any violations here.

I just want you to clarify then.

Does that mean that the behavior described in this story is allowed to, for example, offering money to, to,

to commission's colleagues in exchange of information and having them specifically report to,

to a new ambassador?

Let me underline again that we are talking about allegations.

These are allegations we are looking into them.

There is a specific internal group that is going to be looking into these allegations in more,

in more detail.

And again, I set out the provisions with which members of the college have to comply.

We have the code of conduct, in particular Article 2.

We've got Article 245 of the treaty.

It is their responsibility to ensure that they follow these provisions. Absolutely. Thank you. I see questions online.

Are these still on the same topic? Balazs. Thank you.

My name is Balazs Marto from Telex, and,

I have a general question about this specific, article.

Would it be considered, to be, indicative of sincere cooperation, to conduct such actions that are,

detailed in these articles against an EU institution by any member state government.

When this type of information is shared with us, we look into it,

and that's precisely on the basis of the information shared.

We are looking and as Balazs said,

a group is set up to look precisely into these allegations.

No more questions on this,

then we can go back to Magnus and his original question before I forget.

Magnus, rare earth.