EU court fines Hungary for not following asylum laws

BRUSSELS, Belgium: The EU´s top court on Thursday fined Hungary 200 million euros ($216 million) and imposed a daily one-million-euro penalty for failing to follow the bloc´s asylum laws and illegally deporting migrants, a decision Budapest slammed as “unacceptable”.

The fine and penalty were because Hungary “is deliberately evading” compliance with the European Union laws despite a 2020 ruling that it must uphold international procedures for asylum seekers, the European Court of Justice said.

“Since this failure to fulfil obligations constitutes an unprecedented and exceptionally serious breach of EU law, the Court orders Hungary to pay a lump sum of 200 million euros and a penalty payment of one million euros per day of delay,” it said in a statement.

Hungary´s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is frequently at loggerheads with Brussels, immediately voiced outrage. “The ECJ´s decision to fine Hungary with 200M euros plus 1M euros daily(!!!) for defending the borders of the European Union is outrageous and unacceptable,” the nationalist premier wrote on X.