Johansson: Two Hungarian ministers have promised the government would comply with EU asylum ruling

The Hungarian ministers for European Affairs and Justice have both assured the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration that the Hungarian authorities would comply with the ruling of the European Court of Justice which condemned Hungarian asylum legislation, Ylva Johansson said in an interview with several European newspapers in response to a question from Szabad Európa.

It was in 2020 that as a result of an infringement case against Hungary, the ECJ ruled that Hungarian legislation was not in line with EU regulations. Although the Hungarian government has closed the transit zones and overhauled the system since then, it introduced an extra step to the application process of asylum seekers arriving at the country’s external border, requiring them to make an additional application which needs to be submitted either at the Hungarian embassy in Belgrade or Kyiv (or they can choose to travel towards Croatia, where they can submit their asylum application in one step).

This summer, the EU court fined Hungary, because the Hungarian government had "shifted the responsibility to other member states" and stated that its failure to comply, "which consists in deliberately circumventing the application of a common EU policy as a whole, constitutes an unprecedented and very serious breach of EU law". In addition to the €200 million lump sum, a penalty of €1 million a day has been steadily accumulating since the ruling on 13 June (meaning that at the time of writing we are looking at more than €160 million, which – including the lump sum – is close to 150 billion forints at current exchange rates). The European Commission is sending out invoices every two to three months and the amount can be deducted from EU catch-up funding, which means that Hungary will inevitably lose this money. (The "rejection of the migration penalty" is also mentioned in the currently ongoing national consultation, but the European Commission says that the premise itself is false.)

According to Szabad Európa, Johansson said they were still waiting for the promised amendment to the law. If the government keeps its promise and indeed brings Hungarian asylum legislation in line with the 2020 ruling, the daily penalty will stop accumulating.

EU Affairs Minister János Bóka had indeed held talks with Johansson and in September they had agreed on a timeline. The minister claimed to be negotiating with the intention of reaching an agreement – just days before Viktor Orbán called for a protest against the legislation and court rulings currently in place.

Magyar Hang had previously obtained a proposal for building a refugee camp in Vitnyéd at a cost of five billion forints, and the justification for the proposal cited to the government's efforts to comply with the ruling. In response to a question from Telex, PM Orbán did not deny that such a proposal existed, but stressed that there would be no camp.

Johansson pointed out that rhetoric is one thing and what happens in practice is another.

Citing the Hungarian interior minister, the Commissioner said that the government was already working on preparing the asylum package, from which it had recently requested an opt-out along with the Dutch government (This would require a treaty change, which requires unanimity and is normally a lengthy process, although it can also be inserted when a new member state joins). Ylva Johansson also stated that she was confident that the pact – which would need to be applied in full starting in 2026 – would not be reopened because it was based on a very solid foundation.

The Commissioner is meeting with representatives of the Hungarian, Austrian, Bulgarian and Romanian governments in Budapest on Friday to try to remove obstacles to the full Schengen accession of Bulgaria and Romania. Although internal border controls have been lifted for air and water crossings since April this year, they are still in place for land crossings. Johansson hoped that a final decision, which would have to be taken unanimously at the EU's ministerial council under the Hungarian presidency, could be taken this year (A few days ago, the Romanian Prime Minister spoke about them joining next year as a fact.)

In response to a question from Szabad Europa, the Commissioner said that talks between the European Commission and the Hungarian government were still ongoing about extending the Hungarian card (which makes employment in Hungary easier) to Russian and Belarusian citizens were still ongoing, but

it seems that most of the doubts about the programme have now been clarified and dispelled.

In her view, the Hungarian decision nevertheless sends the wrong political message, even if it cannot be legally questioned.

Johansson recalled that two years ago, when the war in Ukraine started, the European Commission tightened guidelines on how Schengen visas could be issued to Russians. This has reduced the number of such documents being issued in the EU by 90 per cent, but member states – especially those countries that are popular tourist destinations – still issue 500,000 entry visas to Russian citizens every year, which is a cause for concern. For this reason, the Commissioner has initiated the further tightening of the guidelines, which will have to be decided by the new European Commission, which is expected to take office in December and of which Johansson will no longer be a member.

Cover photo: Aurore Martignoni / European Commission Audiovisual Service / European Union