As a Budapest-based public fund watchdog, K-Monitor has been monitoring the use of public funds, including political advertising, in Hungary for seventeen years. In the context of project ‘Making political finance and advertisement in the Visegrad region more transparent,’ K-Monitor together with TI…

Since the late 2010s, it has become a recurring criticism in Hungarian Country Reports and Rule of Law reports that the government does not have adequate and effective structures for social dialogue and stakeholder engagement. Documents of strategic importance have not been shared with the public…

Something has changed since Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán was photographed in a restaurant in Rome with his wife and son. Viktor Orbán has since paid more than HUF 2 million (appr. €5,800, exchange rates as of 27 April) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for, the Ministry claims for the travels of his…

Public institutions (budgetary bodies) in Hungary have to publish their contract data from 29 November on through the government's new database on public spending. K-Monitor tested the site and had a devastating experience. Our impression was that the site is designed to be useless and serves the…

On 30 May, there will be yet another hearing in the Council in relation to Hungary in the framework of the procedure under Article 7(1) TEU that is aimed at determining whether there is a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values the EU is founded on. Since the initiation of the…

Although the European Commission has suspended billions of Euros of EU funding due to the seriousness of corruption, strengthening whistleblower protection in Hungary did not become a remedial measure under the conditionality mechanism or a milestone in the Hungarian RRP, as it happened in some…

Despite relevant measures within the conditionality mechanism and the RRP to carry out and even increase the number of public consultations (Milestone 235), this week the Hungarian government has again proven that there is no serious commitment behind its promises.   Step 1: Weakening the…

In the landscape of democratic institutions and especially within the context of democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland, local governance generally receives less attention than other elements of a  democratic society, such as the judiciary or the media. The Covid-19 crisis presented new kinds…

After a bitterly fought election campaign overshadowed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EU’s less than transparent and democratic financial conditionality mechanism took effect in Hungary. There was plenty for the corruption watchdog K-Monitor to do in 2022! In an environment where the most…

2022 has been a turbulent year for asset declaration rules in Hungary. The government has repeatedly amended the way in which lawmakers and government leaders are required to declare their incomes and assets. While the head of the Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information criticized…