Hungary will not pay ‘unfair’ fine for violating EU asylum rules | World News

Hungary, which took over the rotating EU presidency this week, announced on Friday that it would not pay a multi-million euro fine imposed by the EU’s top court for violating asylum rules.

In June, the European Court of Justice fined Hungary €200 million and imposed a daily penalty payment of €1 million for failing to implement a 2020 decision requiring it to respect international procedures for asylum seekers.

“We have no intention of paying this fine because it is completely unfair,” Deputy Interior Minister Bence Retvati told reporters.

“This fine we received is a form of political pressure because of our approach to illegal immigration,” he added.

Contrary to European Union rules, Budapest allows asylum seekers to submit their applications abroad only at Hungarian embassies.

In December 2020, the CJEU ruled that Hungary was not allowing asylum seekers to leave detention while their cases were being examined and was not offering any special protection to children and other vulnerable people.

Budapest continues to restrict migrants’ access to formal asylum applications and fail to respect their right to remain while their applications are being processed, the court said in June.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a vocal supporter of an alleged plot to replace white Europeans with non-white immigrants, is frequently at odds with Brussels over migration and refugee policy.

Hungary also opposes the recent overhaul of EU laws on the treatment of asylum seekers and migrants.

“Don’t try to get Hungary to change our rules, because we have protected ourselves from immigration,” Orban said in an interview on state television on Monday.

“Instead, they should adopt Hungarian rules here in Brussels and other capitals, and suddenly everything would be simple,” the nationalist leader added.

The European Commission had already announced that if Budapest refused to pay, it would deduct from the funds intended for Hungary the money it had not yet paid.

It froze 19 billion euros due to other procedures.

bur-ros/kym/ach

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modification of the text.