Hungary Fined €200 Million Over Migrant Policy Non-Compliance

Hungary faces a €200 million fine by the EU's top court for failing to implement policy changes regarding the handling of migrants and asylum seekers. Budapest will also incur a daily fine of €1 million until compliance. The 2020 ruling mandated measures for asylum seekers' rights, which Hungary has yet to implement.

Hungary will have to pay a 200 million euro ($216 million) fine for not implementing changes in its policy of handling migrants and asylum seekers at its border, the EU's top court said on Thursday.

Budapest, which has previously refused to carry out the 2020 court ruling, will also be required to pay a daily fine of one million euros ($1.08 million) until it fully implments the measures. In its verdict, the European Court of Justice said Hungary had failed to take measures "to comply with the 2020 judgment as regards the right of applicants for international protection to remain in Hungary pending a final decision on their appeal against the rejection of their application and the removal of illegally staying third-country nationals".

A Hungarian government spokesman did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the ECJ ruling. The government has previously argued that the 2020 ruling was moot as it had already closed so-called "transit-zones" while also hardening rules to bar future asylum applicants.

Under current legislation, people can only submit requests for asylum outside Hungary's borders, at its embassies in neighbouring Serbia or Ukraine. Those who try to cross the border are routinely pushed back. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has often clashed with Brussels on issues ranging from the independence of the judiciary to sending arms to Ukraine, vowed in 2021 to "maintain the existing regime (regarding aslyum seekers) even if the European court ordered us to change it".

The European Commission filed a second application to the court in early 2022, saying Hungary has not taken all the necessary measures to comply with the panel's 2020 judgment. "That failure, which consists in deliberately avoiding the application of a common EU policy as a whole, constitutes an unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law," Thursday's ECJ verdict read. ($1 = 0.9248 euros)

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