Hungary and its leader Viktor Orban are once again at the center of an EU firestorm of controversy over a new work visa and residency permit policy which will allow easier access to the country for Russian and Belarusian nationals.

The central European country has long had a national card system which previously was only available to Ukrainian and Serbian citizens, which both have EU candidacy status but are not yet part of the bloc. The permit scheme was just extended to eight more countries, including Russia and Belarus.

European officials have blasted their inclusion in the visa program as essentially an open invitation for more Russian spies to come into the heart of Europe and given the ongoing Ukraine war.

Image source: Bloomberg

Days ago a series of statements from EU officials raised “security concerns”:

“Such a mechanism is highly questionable and raises very serious security concerns,” Manfred Weber, chairman of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) wrote in a letter sent to European Council head Charles Michel on Monday.

He argued the new visa rules could create “grave loopholes for espionage activities,” warning that the policy could “make it easier for Russians to move around” the EU’s borderless Schengen area.

Weber further described “The lack of a clear need for such a broad and unregulated entry mechanism for Russian and Belarusian workers, combined with the possibility of inadequate security screening poses questions over the consequences for Hungary and the wider Schengen area.”

He and others are demanding a formal explanation and discussion from Budapest. Critics of the policy change have said this is tantamount to handing out “easy visas” for Russians and Belarussians. 

However, Hungary has rejected what it calls “political hysteria” among EU leaders. The West has long denounced Orban’s personal closeness with Russia’s Putin and generally cooperative policies, and refusal to curtail Russian gas imports.

“There is no legal and security issue whatsoever when it comes to the national card,” Hungary’s minister for European Union affairs, Janos Boka, explained to reporters in Brussels Wednesday.

“However there is… a clear political hysteria which is created by the majority of the European parliament and certain member states,” he added.

Hungary’s change in its work permit system has been in effect since July. The controversy unleashed in its wake is yet the latest example of Orban being viewed as a ‘pariah’ within the EU. But he’s always vowed to put Hungary and its interests first.