Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – EU moves to deduct €200 million penalty from Hungary’s EU funds, as nation declines to pay up.
The European Commission has started a special procedure to deduct the €200 million fine that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has set on Hungary over the country’s long-standing rules on the right to asylum. The fine has to be disbursed as a lump sum to the European Commission.
Budapest skipped the first deadline in late August, initiating the executive to send a second payment proposal with a deadline of 17 September. Since this second request was also dismissed, the EU Commission said it would trigger the so-called “offsetting procedure” to deduct the €200 million fine from Hungary’s allocated share of EU funds.
What is the procedure for EU fund deductions?
The technique will look into financial envelopes that are anticipated to be disbursed to Hungary in the coming weeks. Approximately €21 billion of cohesion and recovery funds reserved for Hungary remain frozen due to rule-of-law decline. “We’re moving to the ‘offsetting’ phase as of today,” an EU Commission spokesperson. “In theory, any payments can be looked at, and nothing is excluded, but this will take a bit of time, we need to identify what’s coming up and identity payments that can absorb the fine concerned.”
What are the implications of the €1 million daily fine for Hungary?
Similarly, Hungary is meeting a €1 million fine for each day it continues breaking the ECJ ruling and supports the restriction that prevents migrants from relishing full access to the right of asylum. The accumulated fine is close to €100 million.
How has Prime Minister Viktor orbán reacted to the EU penalty?
The ECJ ruling, which witnessed the judge describe Hungary’s action as an “unprecedented and exceptionally serious violation of EU law”, has triggered a fierce reaction from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who called the multi-million penalty “outrageous and acceptable.” As retaliation, his government has risked busing migrants to Belgium “voluntarily” and “free of charge,” something that would comprise an unprecedented case of instrumentalized migration by one member state against another.
Why is there criticism over Hungary’s plan to bus migrants to Belgium?
No transfers of immigrants have yet taken place but the project has already been met with fierce criticism from Belgian and EU leaders. The dispute, a fresh chapter in the decade-long Brussels-Budapest showdown, is being compounded by growing worries over Hungary’s decision to expand its National Card scheme to Russian and Belarusian citizens, which the Commission cautions could enable sanctions circumvention and pose a danger to the “entire” Schengen Area.
Budapest has vehemently denied any risks to internal security, discussing the extension to Russian and Belarusian citizens was required to palliate labour shortages inside the country and give employers an “easier procedure” to entice foreign workers.
