Hungary decries £170m fine from EU court over migration policy

The Hungarian government has expressed outrage at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling, which imposed a fine of 170 million pounds on the country for violating the EU's immigration policy. "The verdict is unfair and unacceptable," said the head of the Hungarian Prime Minister's Office, Gergely Gulyas, at a press conference on Thursday.

"The ruling is contrary to EU law and the Hungarian constitution and punishes a country that has rejected migration from the outset, protecting its own and Europe's external borders," said Gulyas. "A normal court could have never issued the ruling," he added in outrage.

The CJEU sentenced Hungary to a fine of 170 million pounds for failing to comply with an earlier CJEU ruling regarding migration, including obstructing access to international protection. Each day of delay in paying the fine will cost Budapest an additional 850,000 pounds.

"The verdict is entirely contrary to everything we believe about European law, the Hungarian constitution, the protection of external borders, and effective action against migration," Gulyas said.

"The CJEU's decision to punish Hungary for defending the European Union's borders is outrageous and unacceptable," wrote Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the X portal. "It appears that illegal migrants are more important to Brussels bureaucrats than European citizens," he added.

The European Commission (EC) spokesperson, Balazs Ujvari, informed during a briefing that the 170 million pound fine took effect from Thursday, the day the Court issued its ruling. The responsibility for enforcing the fine now rests with the European Commission.

Ujvari explained that the Commission will contact the Hungarian government to determine how the country plans to comply with the CJEU ruling, address the deficiencies, and set a deadline for the payment of the financial penalty.

In 2020, the Court of Justice ruled that Hungary had failed to meet its obligations as an EU member state. The country had deliberately avoided implementing the EU's standard migration policy, obstructing citizens from third countries' access to asylum procedures, detaining asylum seekers in transit zones, and expelling those awaiting the consideration of possible appeals. The Hungarian authorities were accused of so-called pushbacks, meaning the forced return of individuals illegally residing in Hungarian territory.