Home » News » Prosecutor General Dr. Péter Polt’s video message about the activities of the Prosecution Service of Hungary in 2021

Pro­se­cu­tor Gene­ral Dr. Péter Polt has sub­mit­ted to the Par­lia­ment his annu­al report on the acti­vi­ti­es of the Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce of Hun­gary and has sum­ma­ri­zed the most impor­tant find­ings of the report in a video mes­sage.

In his video mes­sage Pro­se­cu­tor Gene­ral Dr. Péter Polt emp­has­i­zed that last year – when the Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce of Hun­gary cele­b­ra­ted its 150th anni­ver­sary – resemb­led 2020 as far as work orga­ni­za­ti­on was con­cer­ned. A seri­es of mea­sures int­ro­du­ced and taken due to the pan­de­mic rema­ined in force, and prac­ti­ce has pro­ven that it is worth main­tain­ing some of these mea­sures on a long term basis if they rema­in wit­hin the legal fra­me­work and meet the rule of law cri­te­ria.

In 2021, The Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce filed motions for penal orders with regard to 74.5% of all indict­ments. If legal requ­i­re­ments were met in such pro­ce­e­dings, the court deci­ded the cases on the basis of case files and docu­ments. Such pro­ce­e­dings do not infrin­ge the right to fair trial, as – in addi­ti­on to the Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce – the defen­dant and the defen­ce coun­sel may also request to have a trial if they do not agree with the penal order.

Simil­arly to the pre­vi­o­us years, the inter­na­ti­o­nal rela­tions of the Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce have rema­ined excel­lent.

The coope­ra­ti­on with the Euro­pe­an Anti-Fraud Offi­ce (OLAF) is worth spe­ci­al ment­ion­ing. In 2021, OLAF made two judi­ci­al recom­men­da­tions to the Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce of Hun­gary. In both cases, the recom­men­da­tions were eva­lu­a­ted in alre­ady ongo­ing investiga­tions. OLAF is inc­re­a­singly mak­ing judi­ci­al recom­men­da­tions in cases which are alre­ady under investiga­tions in our count­ry. The num­ber of judi­ci­al recom­men­da­tions sent to the Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce of Hun­gary by OLAF is cons­tantly dec­re­a­sing every year. It can be est­ab­lis­hed that every judi­ci­al recom­men­da­ti­on is fol­lo­wed by an investiga­ti­on in Hun­gary. The latest annu­al report of OLAF for 2021 shows that the Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce of Hun­gary filed indict­ment in 67% of OLAF cases in the last five years. This num­ber shows an out­stand­ing result, since it is almost the doub­le of the EU aver­age of 35%. It is an impor­tant deve­lop­ment in this con­text that in Feb­ru­ary 2022, the Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce of Hun­gary and OLAF con­fir­med their alre­ady excel­lent coope­ra­ti­on in an admi­nistra­tive coope­ra­ti­on arrange­ment.

We have manag­ed to est­ab­lish a good wor­king rela­ti­onship with the Euro­pe­an Pub­lic Prosecutor's Offi­ce (EPPO) too, in April 2021. As a result of the pre­vi­o­usly star­ted neg­o­ti­a­tions, the Pro­se­cu­tor Gene­ral of Hun­gary was the first and has so far been the only one among the non-participating mem­ber sta­tes to sign a wor­king arrange­ment  with the Chief Pro­se­cu­tor of the Euro­pe­an Pub­lic Prosecutor's Offi­ce.

Dr. Péter Polt poin­ted out that in addi­ti­on to the pan­de­mic, the con­se­qu­en­ces of the war that star­ted in Feb­ru­ary this year and the energy cris­is are also mak­ing our every­day lives dif­fi­cult. In this regard, the Pro­se­cu­tor Gene­ral emp­has­i­zed that "the leaders­hip of the Pro­se­cu­ti­on Ser­vi­ce is wor­king to ensure that the orga­ni­za­ti­on can adapt to the chang­ing cir­cum­stan­ces as quickly as pos­sib­le, the con­di­tions of the pro­fes­si­o­nal work be ensured and all our col­le­agues can feel the strength and secu­rity which the orga­ni­za­ti­on that is more than 150 years old can pro­vi­de. The key to our succ­ess is wor­king toget­her and sup­port­ing each other."

The Eng­lish ext­ract of the report is ava­i­lab­le here: http://ugyeszseg.hu/en/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ogy_beszamolo_2021.pdf