EU suspends Orbán-linked think tank from lobbyist database

BRUSSELS ― A right-wing think tank with links to former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been suspended from the EU’s database of lobbyists and campaign groups, after it was accused of failing to disclose financial information, including its funding sources.

In an email sent to the group by the secretariat of the EU’s Transparency Register, seen by POLITICO, the watchdog confirmed MCC Brussels had been suspended from the register.

The decision “might deprive you of the opportunity to … have certain meetings in the EU institutions.”

Being de-listed from the lobbying database could mean no longer being eligible to sit on expert groups convened by the European Commission to discuss key files or in committee hearings held by the European Parliament, the message adds.

The suspension from the Transparency Register comes after the Corporate Europe Observatory lodged a complaint alleging that MCC Brussels failed to disclose its funding sources. It also accused the think tank of “spreading Orbán regime propaganda.

Launched in 2022, MCC Brussels received more than €6 million in 2024 according to a funding disclosure “to acquaint and influence European policy makers with its distinct approach towards the political, socio-economic and cultural issues of our time.” Almost all of that funding came from the Budapest-based Mathias Corvinus Collegium educational institution controlled by close political allies of Orbán.

In a statement, MCC Brussels’ founder and executive director Frank Furedi said it “has faced relentless attempts to marginalise, isolate and silence our work because we challenge prevailing orthodoxies.” The group describes itself as taking a critical stance on EU climate change policy and last year hosted an event in the parliament entitled “The Trans Ideology Threat,” hosted by Fidesz MEP András László.

MCC Brussels communication director John O’Brien branded the decision as “political from the beginning” and insisted the complaint “came from an activist organization that has campaigned against MCC Brussels, has received support from networks associated with George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and openly opposes the ideas we defend.”

The Transparency Register maintains a list of more than 17,500 organizations campaigning and lobbying on EU policy, obliging them to make regular financial disclosures and abide by a code of conduct.

MCC Brussels said it would “immediately challenge the decision through all available appeal mechanisms.”

Mari Eccles contributed to this report.