The Hungarian parliament passed a law today making it possible for the government to classify details pertaining to large public investments on the grounds of “national security.” Transparency proponents are calling this piece of legislation the latest in a series of laws passed this year which limit access to information in the public interest.

The proposal, which was submitted by the Ministry of the Interior, allows the government to classify details related to larger investment projects, including the renovation of the Carmelite Monastery in the Buda Castle currently under way (which is to house the Prime Minister’s Office) and the controversial construction of two new reactors at the Paks atomic energy plant.

By citing the potential risk of criminal activities and terrorism-related attacks, the government now has the ability to classify financial and technical details related to these projects for 30 years.

According to the law, the Ministry of Defense can determine whether to release data related to its own construction projects. This is also the case with Hungary’s foreign intelligence service (Információs Hivatal, IH), on whose behalf the Minister Overseeing the Office of the Prime Minister will decide whether the full technical and financial details of the construction project should be kept secret.

For all other construction projects, it is for the interior minister to decide which ones risk being targeted by criminal activities or terrorism and should therefore be completely classified.

Miklós Ligeti, legal director for Transparency International Hungary, says a blanket classification of financial and technical details is unwarranted on grounds that such classifications are exempt from judicial review.

To illustrate, Ligeti says that while specific itemized technical or financial details concerning investments (such as IT systems, security systems, details of bulletproof-glass windows, bug-proofed bunkers, etc.) should certainly be kept secret as a matter of national security, keeping secret all financial and technical information of the entire construction project is not warranted.

In other words, the law makes it possible for the state to circumvent any oversight into the use of public funds by labeling it a “national security risk.”