The European Court of Justice issued its ruling, fining Hungary €200 million for not complying with EU migrant quotes, back in June. The deadline for payment expired in early September, but the Hungarian government was not willing to pay.
What makes matters more complicated is that the ECJ ruling also calls for an additional €1 million in fines per each day the Hungarian government is not willing to comply with the terms mandated by the Migrant Pact, approved by the European Parliament in April 2024.
So far, the Orbán administration has shown no willingness to either pay the penalties or change its migration policy, with Minister for EU Affairs János Bóka outright stating on public record that they are not going to do either.
This chain of events triggered an offsetting procedure by the EU Commission last week, per which the EU is allowed to start deducting the fine from EU funds due to Hungary. Commenting on the new developments, Minister Bóka said: ‘As far as the financial penalty is concerned, I can confirm that the Hungarian government will not pay this penalty. As I understand, the Commission has other tools at its disposal to recuperate this sum,’ as quoted by Euronews.com.
There has been a long ongoing conflict between Budapest and Brussels about EU funding to the country. That fight, it seems, has now entered a new chapter.
The EU Commission first suspended COVID-19 recovery payments to Hungary in July 2021, for supposed rule of law concerns. In the following years, the Union also moved to withhold additional sums from the EU cohesion pool. By 2023, the frozen EU funds due to Hungary had grown to around €36 billion. The EU Commission approved the release of €10.2 billion of that money in December 2023 after years of intense negotiations.
However, fines are now set to be deducted from the remaining €26 billion of EU funds, as well as any potential future funding to Hungary.
'There has been a long ongoing conflict between Budapest and Brussels about EU funding to the country'
In the same article by Euronews, Minister Bóka has also stated that Hungary is willing to come to the negotiating table once again to find a ‘constructive way’ for Hungary to comply with the ECJ ruling. ‘We agreed on a timetable on how we will conduct these discussions and also on the technicalities and the channels of communications,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has recently criticized the EU, calling into question whether they would help Hungary with relief funds for the damage caused by the flooding of the River Danube. He said that Hungarians have always had to rely on themselves, and ‘only problems we solve ourselves are solved’.
At a press briefing earlier this month, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás stated that Hungary is ready to go after Brussels for money for yet another issue, and is willing to sue for reimbursement for the cost of protecting the EU’s external borders. Minister Bóka echoed that sentiment, saying that he is looking for ‘legal possibilities on how certain expenses that we have incurred in the protection of the border could be offset’ against the penalties issued by EJR.
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