The Court of Justice of the European Union on Thursday ordered Hungary to pay a lump sum of 200 million euros and a fine of one million euros per day for failing to comply with the right to the EU in terms of asylum. Seized by the European Commission, it notes that Budapest did not execute one of its judgments, in December 2020, which judged that Hungary “had not respected the rules of Union law in matters, in particular, of procedures relating to the granting of international protection and the return of illegally staying third-country nationals” and “still does not respect them”.
“This failure, which consists of deliberately evading the application of a common policy of the Union as a whole, constitutes an unprecedented and exceptionally serious violation of Union law,” explains the CJEU to justify this new sanction of the migration policy of nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Under the aegis of the leader, in power since 2010, the central European country has built fences at its borders and restricted the submission of asylum applications to embassies abroad, a policy which has already earned it several convictions of the Court of Justice of the EU. The penalty of one million euros is a penalty per day of delay as long as the 2020 decision is not respected.
According to the Court, this non-compliance by Hungary “has the effect of transferring to other Member States the responsibility” of ensuring “the reception of applicants for international protection, the processing of their applications and the return of third-country nationals staying illegally” and “seriously undermines the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibilities between Member States”.
Viktor Orban immediately criticized this decision. “The fine of 200 million euros plus 1 million euros per day (!!!) for defending the borders of the EU is scandalous and unacceptable,” he reacted on the social network adding that “illegal migrants seemed more important to Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens.”
Hungary, hostile to welcoming asylum seekers, has already been condemned by the EU justice system – like Poland and the Czech Republic – for having refused a refugee reception quota decided within the framework of the program European launched at the time of the migrant reception crisis in 2015.
This country also opposed the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, a major reform adopted in mid-May by the EU providing in particular for a mandatory solidarity mechanism towards member states facing migratory pressure. This solidarity can take the form of welcoming asylum seekers or making a financial contribution.
