EU Deducts €200 Million Fine from Hungary’s Funds Over Asylum Law Violations, Escalating Tensions
The European Commission has triggered a special procedure to deduct the €200 million fine that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has imposed on Hungary over the country’s long-standing restrictions on the right to asylum.The fine has to be paid as a lump sum to the European Commission.Budapest missed the first deadline in late August, prompting the executive to send a second payment request with a deadline of 17 September.
Since this second request was also ignored, the Commission said on Wednesday it would activate the so-called “offsetting procedure” to subtract the €200 million fine from Hungary’s allocated share of EU funds.The procedure will look into financial envelopes that are expected to be disbursed to Hungary in the coming weeks. Around €21 billion of cohesion and recovery funds earmarked for Hungary remain frozen due to rule-of-law decline.”We’re moving to the ‘offsetting’ phase as of today,” a Commission spokesperson said on Wednesday.
“In theory, any payments can be looked at, nothing is excluded, but obviously this will take a bit of time, we need to identify what’s coming up and identity payments that can absorb the fine concerned.”In parallel, Hungary is facing a €1 million fine for each day it continues disregarding the ECJ ruling and maintains the restriction that prevents migrants from enjoying full access to the right of asylum. The accumulated fine is close to €100 million.Budapest has to reply to the Commission explaining what measures, if any, it has introduced to abide by the judgment. Since the answer has not arrived, the executive has sent the first payment request to collect the fine, with a 45-day deadline.
The ECJ ruling, which saw the judge describe Hungary’s action as an “unprecedented and exceptionally serious breach of EU law”, has triggered a furious reaction from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who called the multi-million penalty “outrageous and acceptable.”As retaliation, his government has threatened to bus migrants to Belgium “voluntarily” and “free of charge,” something that would constitute an unprecedented case of instrumentalised migration by one member state against another.No transfers of migrants have yet taken place but the scheme has already been met with fierce criticism from Belgian and EU authorities.
The dispute, a new chapter in the decade-long Brussels-Budapest showdown, is being compounded by growing concerns over Hungary’s decision to extend its National Card scheme to Russian and Belarusian citizens, which the Commission warns could enable sanctions circumvention and pose a threat to the “entire” Schengen Area.Budapest has strongly denied any risks to internal security, arguing the extension to Russian and Belarusian citizens was needed to palliate labour shortages inside the country and give employers an “easier procedure” to attract foreign workers.
Despite the tension, there was a hint of rapprochement this week after János Bóka, Hungary’s minister for European affairs, met with Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs to discuss both the ECJ ruling and the National Card.
