Fidesz hopeful of a breakthrough in Altus case

Budapest, October 13 (MTI) – A European parliamentary committee will on Thursday consider a case involving a European Commission contract with Altus, a company owned by former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, ruling Fidesz MEP Tamas Deutsch said.

The committee on budgetary control will handle the “scandalous” case, Deutsch told a press conference on Tuesday, adding that this in itself was a sign of a potential breakthrough.

Altus was the leader of a consortium which won a 1.5 billion forint (EUR 4.8m) contract with the EU to prepare studies on the use of EU funding in Hungary. Fidesz said earlier it was unacceptable that the monitoring of funding should be carried out through a private business and one owned by the former prime minister of the country which is being scrutinised.

“If in this case political conflict of interest is not raised, this will mean the emptying an important EU principle,” Deutsch said, adding that the European People’s Party regards these rules as important.

In April this year the EC announced that an international consortium led by Altus had been selected to undertake studies related to the future development of cohesion and regional policy. In June, government office chief Janos Lazar held talks with EC director-general in charge of regional policy Walter Deffaa and presented the government’s view that the commission had not been circumspect enough when it signed the contract with Altus.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters