Orbán rejected the EU court’s fine and affirmed that he would not succumb to “blackmail by Brussels bureaucrats”.

“Outrageous and unacceptable”. This is how Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban described it 200 million euro fine Posted this Thursday by EU Court of Justice To overlook a previous conviction for violating Community law on the protection of immigrants.

After hearing the sentence, Orbán declared, “We will not give in to the financial blackmail of Brussels bureaucrats! We protect the borders and we protect Hungarians!”

Orban’s reaction to the sentence is no surprise Budapest While the government’s immigration policy Fidesz Party Not only is it restrictive, but the executive has never shied away from confrontation with European institutions.

“it appears that illegal immigrants, intruders are more important for Brussels bureaucrats He is their own European Citizens“, Orban said in a message on the social network X, in which he said Hungary had done only “Protect the borders of the Union”,

“Hungary will not succumb to financial blackmail,” the interior minister said. Gergely Gulyásbefore the press, and said that the CJEU’s ruling “is an outrage” and contrary to Community law and the Hungarian Constitution.

Gulyas assures that The government will not change its stance since this was confirmed by the Hungarians in a plebiscite that determined Hungary does not accept immigrants,

The minister thus referred to the 2016 referendum promoted by the government Refugee quota In European Union countries, it was not valid due to not having more than 50% participation.

According to the opinion, Hungary has not implemented a December 2020 decision International protection of migrants and condemns him to pay 200 million euros and payment of fines from time to time one million euros for each day of delay.

European High Court warns that Budapest’s decision to deliberately avoid implementing common EU policy is wrong “an unprecedented and exceptionally serious breach” of community law.

In its ruling, the court declared that Hungary had not adopted the necessary measures to implement the 2020 ruling, which represents a Violation of the principle of loyal cooperation Because it deliberately avoids applying the EU’s common policy on international protection and the rules on the expulsion of third country nationals in an irregular situation.

He says it’s behavior Luxembourga “significant threat” to the unity of Union law that affects both private interests, in particular asylum seekers, and the public interest in an “exceptionally serious” way.

Notes the limitations on access to international protection procedures with the creation of the Court Transit areaThe border is located between Hungary and Serbiawhere applicants had to wait for their asylum applications to be analyzed, and Hot Returns towards third countries, a practice criticised by both the EU and humanitarian NGOs.

In the opinion of the Luxembourg-based court, these measures leave migrants arriving there stranded “Almost impossible” to request asylum, despite the fact that this procedure is a “fundamental step” in the process of resolving protection requests and Member States “cannot unreasonably delay it.”

Under common rules, EU countries must ensure that asylum seekers are in a position to apply at the borders “as soon as they express a wish”.

However, the Hungarian government forces asylum seekers to submit their application for international protection in the transit zone of the Serbian-Hungarian border, while severely limiting the number of people who can access said zone, which complicates access to the procedure they are entitled to. In practice, these people face waiting periods of between eleven and eighteen months to be able to access the transit zones and therefore to be able to prepare their request.

Hungary is not the only country to be fined in recent years. In 2021, the CJEU ordered Poland to pay one million euros a day for not implementing Supreme Court rulings on controversial judicial reform. The amount was later halved.