CJEU fines Hungary for EUR 200 million for violating EU migration policy

Further, the CJEU obliged Hungary to pay a penalty of one million euros for every day of delay in complying with a ruling issued in December 2022, on the country’s breach of the guidelines on asylum and returning immigrants.

Gulyas: CJEU ruling ‘outrageous, unfair and unacceptable

Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, called the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union to fine Hungary 200 million euros for not complying with EU legislations on asylum and on returning illegal immigrants to their home countries “outrageous, unfair and unacceptable”.

The minister told a regular press briefing on Thursday the ruling contradicted European Union law, was incompatible with Hungary’s constitution and punished the country which had rejected illegal migration from the beginning, protecting its own and Europe’s external borders.

This ruling “could never have been passed by a normal court,” he added.

Gulyas pointed out that the decision extended beyond the claim. The European Commission requested a condemnation of 7 million euros and a daily fine of 6 million euros until compliance, whereas the court ordered Hungary to pay a lump sum of 200 million euros and a daily fine of 1 million euros, that is seventy times the fine originally requested.

The ruling goes completely against everything we think about European law, the Hungarian constitution, the protection of external borders and effective action against migration, Gulyas said.

Meanwhile, Tamas Deutsch, the head of Fidesz’s delegation to the EP, also called the court’s ruling “outrageous” and “unacceptable”.

“We are not going to yield to the financial blackmail of Brussels bureaucrats,” he said.

He said that “we’re going to protect the borders and the Hungarian people”, adding that Hungarians had stated firmly on several occasions that “they do not want to live in a country of immigrants”.