János Bóka, EU Affairs Minister, said the "historic successes" of the Hungarian EU presidency such as the Budapest Declaration on boosting European competitiveness and progress on integrating the Western Balkans must be maintained.

At a meeting of counterparts in Brussels on Tuesday, Minister Bóka said he would raise whether the Polish presidency planned to pursue Hungarian presidency initiatives to put European institutions under the spotlight in terms of ensuring transparency, the rule of law, and the fight against corruption, and he noted a letter he sent to his Polish counterpart last December requesting that action be taken on these issues.

Minister Bóka said an EU commissioner "who is now under criminal proceedings on charges of money laundering and other corruption crimes" had been his interlocutor of the Hungarian rule of law situation over the past five years.

Also, a green NGO funding scandal "is still making waves", he said, referring to the European Commission which he said had channeled European taxpayers' money to various NGOs "to lobby in member states and EU institutions" in support of the EC's green transition plan.

"This must be addressed otherwise trust in the European Union institutions ... will be undermined," he added.