EU lawmakers seek probe of bloc’s enlargement commissioner

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — European Union lawmakers are calling for an investigation into a senior member of the bloc’s executive branch amid concern that he might be showing too much favoritism toward Serbia’s pro-Russian president. Oliver Varhelyi is the EU’s commissioner in charge of enlargement. He’s a Hungarian citizen and ally of Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Varhelyi’s brief includes relations with the volatile Balkans region. Many countries there are trying to join the bloc, and he supervises their accession talks. In a report Wednesday, the lawmakers urged the European Commission to launch “an independent and impartial investigation into whether the conduct engaged in and policies furthered by” Varhelyi breach the executive’s code of conduct and his EU treaty obligations.