A HUNGARIAN member of the European Parliament has been indicted for allegedly spying on the European Union, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors in Hungary did not identify which country Bela Kovacs was purportedly spying for, but earlier said Hungary’s counterintelligence service had been alarmed by his regular contacts with Russian diplomats and monthly visits to Moscow.

According to the indictment, “the parliamentary representative carried out his spying activities in the interests of a foreign state and on behalf of the secret services”, prosecutors said.

Charges filed by the Chief Investigative Prosecutor’s Office against Kovacs, from the far-right Jobbik party, also include fraud totalling 21,076 euros (£18,603) stemming from the fictitious employment of interns in the EU parliament in 2012 to 2013.

Kovacs, who has been a member of the EU parliament since 2010, worked and studied in Russia for many years.

The case first came to light in mid-2014, when prosecutors asked the European Parliament to lift Kovacs’s immunity, though at the time the reason was classified.

The request was approved in October 2015, when a separate request was filed to lift his immunity in the fraud case.

Kovacs denied the charges, saying he welcomed the opportunity to clear his name in court.