In a new chapter in the long series of standoffs between Hungary and the European Union, Budapest has once again tried to make a splash with its latest threat to Brussels, this time on the issue of the migration policy of the national-populist government of Viktor Orbán. Hungary rejects a fine of 200 million euros imposed by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) for violating the right to asylum during the refugee crisis of 2015 and 2016.
In a typical Orbán move, the ultra-conservative government has missed the deadline for paying the debt and has responded with a demand: it is demanding compensation from Brussels for the 2 billion euros it claims it has spent on “protecting the external border of the Schengen area.” The government is “prepared to take legal action if necessary,” announced Minister Gergely Gulyás after a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Thursday. A few days ago he also threatened to send buses with irregular migrants to Brussels.
Last June, the European Court of Justice condemned Hungary for an “unprecedented and exceptionally serious violation of EU law.” The court imposed a fine of 200 million euros for failing to comply with the right to asylum and for refusing to comply with a 2020 ruling initiated by the Commission in 2017 due to Hungary’s refusal — together with Poland and the Czech Republic — to accept refugees and asylum seekers who were eligible under the relocation mechanism due to the mass arrival of people fleeing the war in Syria. Hungary also prevented people arriving on its territory from accessing the procedure to request international protection and confined them in centres in detention conditions.
Orbán called the ruling “outrageous and unacceptable”. “It seems that illegal immigrants [sic] “They are more important to Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens,” the prime minister said in June. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Gulyás said that EU Affairs Minister János Bóka had been given the mandate to negotiate the fine with the EU. Gulyás, who is responsible for the prime minister’s office, insisted that “Hungary’s position on migration is in line with the results of the 2016 referendum, which categorically opposed the forced resettlement of migrants,” according to a statement from the government’s international spokesperson.
Hungary, Minister Gulyás continued, “plans to ask the European Union for compensation for the approximately 2 billion euros spent on protecting the external border of the Schengen area.” If Hungary does not obtain the compensation it claims on the grounds that Hungary protects the EU by controlling its external border, the government is prepared to take legal action, he said.
Budapest missed the September 2 deadline to pay the fine. It now has until the 17th. If it fails to pay, the European Commission can initiate proceedings to deduct the amount from its EU budget. Part of the European money allocated to Hungary (21 billion euros) remains blocked because of its attacks on the rule of law, but also because of its migration and asylum policy. The country, which has rejected the European migration pact, forces asylum seekers to process their applications from embassies in kyiv – now at war – and Belgrade.
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Buses with migrants
The threat to sue the EU has been looming for some time. Gulyás already mentioned it in a statement on 22 August, when he also issued another warning: “If Brussels wants migrants, we will give them to them. We will send them on a one-way ticket.”
Orbán repeated the warning last Friday, and in a more spectacular staging, Bence Rétvári, the State Secretary for the Interior, called the press together with a dozen buses in the background with the itinerary in illuminated signs: from Röszke, a village on the border with Serbia, to Brussels. The idea is reminiscent of the trips organised by the governor of Texas, the Republican Greg Abbott, who chartered buses in 2022 to transport migrants to New York and to the home of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The European Commission has warned that it will do everything in its power to prevent Orbán from carrying out his threat, reports Brussels Silvia AyusoThis week, a spokesperson for the EU Executive warned that this would not only constitute a violation of EU law, but also of the “principle of sincere and loyal cooperation, as well as mutual trust.”
The Belgian authorities have also expressed their firm rejection of Orbán’s threat, and have recalled that, if it were to happen, the Hungarians would be committing an illegal act by transporting and introducing irregular migrants into other Member States. “Belgium will not allow access to these politically exploited migratory flows,” said the Secretary of State for Asylum and Immigration, Nicole de Moor, who added: “We do not accept this from Russia and we will not do it with Hungary.”
