Fire VarHar

Why the European Commissioner for Health, Olivér Várhelyi, must be removed

The European Commission has its own version of a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) leader: Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, Olivér Várhelyi (or VarHar). When VarHar posts a text on X, it is often followed by a long list of Community Notes correcting his false statements. When he gives a speech, the news more often reports on his outrageous or unsubstantiated remarks. Rather than engaging with the health communities and consulting their views, he approaches policy and stakeholders in a confrontational manner, in the same fashion as the person who appointed him, former Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.

Olivér Várhelyi’s pro-Hungarian nationalist bias (not to mention, allegedly, running a Hungarian spy ring out of Brussels) and disrespectful statements do not align at all with the obligations of a European Commissioner.

Our Man in Brussels pointing to the exit

As the new Hungarian Prime Minister, Péter Magyar, begins to dismantle the corruption of the former Orbán regime, removing VarHar must be on his “to-do” list. There are many good reasons to justify removing him from office.

• He has already been deemed incompetent by the European Parliament given they would only approve his second posting as Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare if certain responsibilities (oversight of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, as well as safeguarding sexual and reproductive health rights) were removed from his mandate.

• Várhelyi is a lawyer and career diplomat. Unlike his predecessors, he is neither a medical doctor nor public health specialist. He is as qualified to run the European Health Directorate General as RFK Jr is at the Department of Health and Human Services.

• His previous post, as European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement from 2019 to 2024, was widely criticized. He was accused of bias towards Serbian interests while meddling in internal Bosnian politics.

• He has repeatedly shown disrespect to Members of the European Parliament, at one time calling them “idiots” on a hot mic.

• Even worse, when he was the Hungarian ambassador to the European Union, there were reports that he was running a spy ring out of his Brussels office. A recent European Parliament investigation into Várhelyi concluded that his actions “demonstrate a pattern that is incompatible with the standards of accountability, reliability and sound administration required of a Member of the Commission.”

VarHar has no experience in health issues and carries a stench of corruption wherever he goes while his mistakes and missteps seem to confirm his incompetence.

Inexperienced and Incapable

Almost two years on, it is clear that Olivér Várhelyi has failed to reassure anyone that he is capable of carrying out any health-related responsibilities. He has made a large number of claims that have embarrassed the European Union within the health research community.

Outside of implementing the strategies from the previous European Commission, VarHar has only taken the lead on one new regulation: the revision of the European Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), and there his inexperience and lack of knowledge has been troubling. In February, a group of 23 scientists and professors wrote the President of the European Commission an eight-page letter outlining Várhelyi’s “false and misleading European Commission statements about novel nicotine product safety”.

Some further examples of VarHar’s false and unscientific claims:

• VarHar falsely declared on an X post that nicotine causes cancer (see image below). As nicotine is widely known to not be a carcinogen, the post was quickly taken down when someone with some scientific literacy corrected him. But since then, he has been making claims like vaping and nicotine pouches being as harmful as tobacco, or relying on a series of questionable studies to falsely claim that these tobacco harm reduction strategies cause a wide number of diseases, including even obesity. Hmm…

• A recent report to guide the upcoming EU Tobacco Products Directive revision was subcontracted to a group of anti-nicotine NGOs and the statements were so biased and unsubstantiated that the Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB) rejected it (see image below). Várhelyi ignored the concerns of the RSB and the European Ombudsman and published the report without revision. He regularly references parts of the report out of context. Since then, the management of the TPD regulatory process has been quietly moved to another more science-oriented unit within the Health Directorate.

• VarHar’s attitude to the upcoming consultation on whether alternative nicotine products should fall under the most stringent tax and regulatory measures as tobacco products has been curious to say the least. He stated during a recent speech that it is clear for him that e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches were as harmful as tobacco products. Going into a consultation on the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive, Várhelyi stated: “But the winner must be sure when we start this whole exercise. It has to be, it has to be the consumers. It has to be the young generation.“ So will VarHar just cancel the consultation requirement and impose his views? Or will he patiently wait until the “idiots” finish? That seems to be what he has been doing all along.

Is this how a European Commissioner should behave?
Like his American counterpart, RFK Jr, another lawyer with no healthcare training and a penchant for confrontational political rhetoric, Olivér Várhelyi is leaving consumers confused and scientists frustrated.
Should VarHar be spending more time spreading misinformation or relying on the scientific advisors available to him within the European Commission?
Should he function through confrontation or consultation?
Are his emotional rhetoric and political survival instincts useful in pushing forward a complicated regulation?

As Orbán’s man in Brussels, combative and scandal-prone, should we still be asking these questions or should VarHar be sent packing?

How do you remove a European Commissioner?

There are different ways to remove an ineffective, corrupt and embarrassingly ignorant European Commissioner like Olivér Várhelyi.

• The Commission President can force a resignation. This is the easiest and cleanest option, but like so many other issues, Ursula von der Leyen does not seem to have the stomach for such a fight.

• The Court of Justice of the EU can force VarHar’s removal arguing that he no longer meets the conditions for office or is guilty of serious misconduct. The Brussels spy ring scandal or his meddling in Serbian and Bosnian politics could allow a case to be made, but this will take years and the combative Orbanist will certainly fight it out.

• The European Parliament can only remove the whole Commission (like they did in 1999 with the Santer Commission over the misconduct of the Commissioner for Research, Édith Cresson), but as they would need a two-thirds majority vote, they would have to be very angry. After VarHar called the MEPs “idiots”, I think they are close.

• The new Hungarian Prime Minister cannot remove a commissioner who is now in office as an EU official. Once confirmed, Member States have no formal control over their Commissioner appointments. But there is no doubt that Péter Magyar has discussed a possible new Commissioner with von der Leyen who does have the power. Likewise, Magyar’s Tisza party, as part of the European People’s Party, is putting pressure on the EPP to persuade Ursula von der Leyen, a member of the EPP, to have her take the easy route. Manfred Weber won’t be able to keep betting on this lame horse for much longer.

The reality though is that an embattled Commissioner, fighting to stay in power amid claims of spying, an Orbán legacy, incompetence and corruption is not doing a service to the European Commission. Worse, he is becoming a folk hero to Commission-haters on the far right that welcome dysfunctional governance.

VarHar seems to think that the best defense is a good offense. He thinks his war against tobacco harm reduction strategies will distract from his personal issues. But that would require him being equipped for such a battle. At the moment, VarHar, like MAHA in the US, is shooting blanks and further embarrassing his administration.