Szabolcs Fazakas

Szabolcs Fazakas (26 October 1947 – 31 March 2020 ) was a Hungarian politician and diplomat.

Profession Fazakas was born in Budapest, and earned a degree of external trade in 1971, graduating from Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences (present-day Corvinus University of Budapest). He taught as an assistant lecturer there from 1971 to 1973. Earning PhD, he was employed by the Ministry of External Trade (then Ministry of Trade) between 1973 and 1990, where he worked as a rapporteur for economic relations with West Germany and East Germany, then commercial counselor at Vienna, finally Head of Department responsible for OECD affairs and relations. He served as Deputy Minister of Trade, and was also Head of the Secretariat for International Economic Relations from 1989 to 1990.

Following the transition to democracy, Fazakas joined the private sector. He functioned as regional representative of the Österreichische Industrieholding (ÖIAG) in Budapest from 1990 to 1995. Besides that, he was also Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the European Commercial Bank Limited Liability Company from 1994 to 1995. He was also delegated into the Interparliamentary Union from 2002 to 2004. He was then Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Hungarian Socialist Party, part of the Party of European Socialists from 2004 to 2009. On 23 July 2004, he was elected Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control, holding the position until 30 January 2007, when he was elected one of the quaestors of the European Parliament for the second half of the term (2007–2009). His name appeared in the 6th place in the candidacy list of MSZP during the 2009 European Parliament election in Hungary, but the party gained only 4 seats, thus Fazakas lost his mandate.

Szabolcs Fazakas was elected to the European Court of Auditors on 7 May 2010, replacing Gejza Halász. During his nomination, Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch charged that he had voluntarily joined the Hungarian Secret Service during the communist dictatorship and worked there for more than 13 years as a secret agent, and was also involved in a suspicious arms procurement. Fazakas denied the charges and sued Deutsch. His mandate expired on 31 August 2017, he was replaced by Ildikó Pelczné Gáll.