OR European Commission notified that the Hungary is set to lose €200 million in EU funds after missing a deadline to pay a fine for breaching asylum law.
In particular, the EU’s highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) imposed the fine in June. Budapest had until yesterday, Tuesday, to pay, but failed to do so, the Commission said today.
“What we will do now is deduct €200 million from the next EU budget payments to Hungary,” a Commission spokesman said in Brussels.
The announcement is the latest in a series of rebukes for Hungary, where the nationalist government is frequently criticized by the European Commission for its inflexible refugee policy.
Why was the fine applied?
In June, the European Court also ordered Hungary to pay an extra 1 million a day for failing to implement an earlier decision to change its asylum policies.
The Commission has sent a first payment request to Budapest to collect unpaid daily fines, it announced today.
The Court fined Budapest for violating EU law, including limiting access to international protection procedures, the right of asylum seekers to remain in Hungary pending a final decision and the removal of irregularly staying third-country nationals, the court said in a press release issued in June.
The decisions of the Court of Justice of the EU are binding on the 27 EU member states.
The application of the Court’s rulings “constitutes an unprecedented and extremely serious violation of EU law,” the court said at the time.
Budapest is “deliberately avoiding the implementation of the EU’s common policy on international protection,” he added.
Sources: AMPE, dpa