President Ferenc Pál Biró’s welcoming remarks at the Converging Roads of Integrity 2025 conference

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear colleagues, friends from the international integrity community,

Allow me to begin with a thought. I have long believed that the fight against corruption is not only an institutional matter, but a profoundly moral one.

It relies on a kind of “moral immune system” whose foundations are our inner compass, our sense of community, our responsibility, and the certainty of consequences.

As Churchill put it in 1940: “The truth is incontrovertible.”

This idea remains true today. Because integrity is not merely the knowledge of rules but a commitment to truth.

Today we have gathered in Budapest from different parts of the world, yet we seek the same goal: to build communities and institutions where honesty is not the exception but the natural state.

The title of our conference — “Converging Roads of Integrity” — expresses exactly this: strength emerges when different paths meet.

The purpose of this two-day conference is to bring these paths together: research, models, historical experience, and practical solutions in one place. Since its establishment, the Integrity Authority has taken on this mission: to build on knowledge, facts, and joint work.

Why is it essential to speak about integrity?

Because corruption is never merely a legal issue. Corruption is a systemic distortion: it relativizes facts, erodes responsibility, and ultimately undermines trust in institutions.

And it does not only take away money or public resources. It takes away opportunity, fair competition, justice, and confidence in the future.

These distorted patterns reinforce one another and create a downward spiral.

This spiral is the gradual weakening of the moral immune system: silence, double standards, the suppression of criticism, and finally apathy, when a community no longer believes in recovery.

This is why independent institutions are indispensable — integrity authorities, ombuds offices, oversight bodies, the free press, and academia — because they are the points where the corruption spiral can be broken.

Strengthening this moral immune system is the essence of the Integrity Authority’s mission.

1. The power of prevention and education

The first line of defence of this immune system is not the investigative authority and not the courts.

The first line is prevention: the transmission of values, and making good examples visible.

Corruption is born where the moral immune system weakens: where the inner compass shifts, where good examples disappear, and where a community abandons its own boundaries.

This is why prevention is our strongest tool:
– reducing harmful patterns,
– strengthening good examples,
– clearly expressing shared norms.

Integrity cannot be understood from rules alone. Honesty must be experienced. It must be demonstrated — at home, in schools, in institutions.

Teaching strengthens the moral immune system.

2. The role of consequences

But teaching and prevention are not enough. There is no integrity without consequences.

A breach of rules must have visible, proportionate, and predictable consequences. Otherwise, violating the rules becomes a rational choice.

Accountability is not a punitive logic — it is system protection: defining the boundaries of our shared norms and protecting the honest majority.

Consistent signalling, investigation and — where necessary — sanctions are not revenge but correction. The self-protection of the common good.

3. International patterns

The international developments of recent years have made it clear that the independence of anti-corruption institutions is never self-evident.

In Central and Eastern Europe, interventions are often visible and direct. In Western Europe, more subtle tools appear: reputational pressure and budgetary constraints.

Experience shows that institutions that reach the most sensitive cases often find themselves at the centre of attention.

The pressure that comes with this can be managed only through community support, stable institutional conditions, and public recognition — for all those who are dedicated to reducing corruption.

The experts gathered here today know well that there is no single universal institutional model that works in every context and every society.

Hong Kong, Lithuania, and South Africa each followed different paths and used different tools.

Yet there are shared principles behind every successful anti-corruption institution:
– genuine independence,
– a clear and sufficiently broad mandate based on education, prevention and detection,
– and strong societal embeddedness and support.

4. The Hungarian path

The Hungarian Integrity Authority follows its own path. Our mandate is narrower than that of many of our international peers, but this is precisely why we build on professional credibility, data collection, transparency, and partnership.

We work with the power of facts and expertise.

In three years, our investigations have involved nearly 250 billion forints — more than 650 million euros — of European Union funds.

This demonstrates that even within constraints, real impact is possible when an institution operates consistently and professionally.

Why are we here today?

Because we believe that the fight against corruption can succeed only together:
– through cooperation between science and practice,
– partnerships among institutions, civil society organisations, and companies,
– aligning international experience with domestic realities.

And yes — sometimes through personal courage. But that courage achieves real impact only when backed by the strength of a community.

Closing

I wish for this conference to become a true meeting point: a place where ideas, experiences, and good practices meet.

Where different paths truly converge.

And where together we take another step toward a future in which integrity is not an expectation but a reality.