Boka: Hungary begins talks with EC on CJEU’s migration policy ruling

Speaking to Hungarian reporters in connection with a 200 million euro fine and a daily 1 million euro penalty Hungary has been ordered to pay by the CJEU for failing to comply with the EU’s asylum regulations, Boka said Hungary has started talks on the matter with Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson.

The minister said he had made it clear at their talks that Hungary will not pay the fine.

“We agreed on the communication channels we’ll be using to discuss the implementation of the ruling going forward,” he said. “We’ve outlined a schedule according to which the talks will continue.”

Hungary, Boka added, aimed to resolve the matter and have the daily 1 million euro penalty lifted.

Hungary’s position on the implementation of the ruling derived from the political will expressed in a referendum, National Consultation surveys and elections. “This is a very firm and clear mandate for us,” the minister said. “It is along this mandate that we have to continue the talks with the European Commission.”

Commenting on the AFCO meeting held on the sidelines of a plenary session of the European Parliament, Boka said he had presented the priorities of the Hungarian EU presidency and briefed the committee’s members on the progress that was expected during the Hungarian presidency in the matters that fall under their respective areas of competence. Most of the questions he had received, however, had to do with the internal political situation in Hungary “and were open political attacks against Hungary and the Hungarian people”, he said.

Regarding comments made at the hearing by German Green MEP Daniel Freund about Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visits to Moscow and Beijing this past summer being a violation of EU rules, Boka said the European public needed to be made aware that the MEP’s remarks “do not correspond to reality”.