Orbán: "outrageous"

Hungary’s government punished for asylum policy

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has punished Hungary's government for its asylum policy. The judges ruled in Luxembourg on Thursday that the country must pay 200 million euros as supreme court decisions on the asylum system had not been implemented.

An additional one million euros would be added for each additional day of delay. The background to this is a complaint filed by the EU Commission in 2022, when it was decided that Hungary's government had not sufficiently implemented an earlier ruling by the ECJ from December 2020 regarding the Hungarian asylum system. Various regulations in the country were in breach of EU law.

Criticism of the treatment of migrants
Among other things, this concerned the treatment of migrants in the now closed transit camps on the border with Serbia. Hungary's government would not guarantee effective access to the asylum procedure. 

The EU Commission has already frequently criticized Hungary's refugee policy (see video above). Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán described the current ruling as "outrageous and unacceptable." "We will not give in to the financial blackmail of the Brussels bureaucrats! We will protect the borders and we will protect Hungary," the head of government wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

Approval from the SPÖ
In contrast, SPÖ security spokesman Reinhold Einwallner expressed his approval. "The court is thus showing a clear stance against one of the many breaches of the law that Orbán is committing in his asylum policy. Orbán is part of the problem, not the solution (...)", he said in a statement.