A furious row has erupted between Brussels and Budapest over Hungarian PM Viktor Orban‘s threat to bus migrants to Belgium amid a dispute with the EU’s top court.
Hungary was fined €200 million (£168m) by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in June for failing to abide by the bloc’s asylum policies – but refuses to pay up.
The ECJ said Budapest had broken European Union migration law with limits on the rights of refugees and migrants to claim asylum, by forcing asylum seekers to make a “declaration of intent” at a Hungarian embassy in a country outside the EU before they could enter.
Hungary faces an additional €1m (£843k) daily penalty until it falls in line with EU policy.
The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, took Hungary to the ECJ over the issue, insisting that the Budapest had fallen foul of rules obliging member countries to have common procedures for granting asylum.
The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, took Hungary to the ECJ over the issue, insisting that the Budapest had fallen foul of rules obliging member countries to have common procedures for granting asylum.
Orbán, a defiant ally of Vladimir Putin known for his fierce anti-immigration rhetoric, said the financial penalty was “outrageous and unacceptable”.
“It seems that illegal migrants are more important to the Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens,” he said in June following the ruling of the court – which is based in Luxembourg.
In August, Orbán deputies retaliated, threatening to give irregular migrants a free “one-way ticket” from Hungary to Brussels.
State Secretary Bence Rétvári held a media event on Friday showing buses that would apparently be used, featuring signs reading “Röszke-Brussels.” The trips would be offered voluntarily, he said.
“If Brussels wants illegal migrants, Brussels can have them,” he told reporters. No journey have taken place, and it’s not clear whether Orban’s government has any serious intention to.
Hadja Lahbib, Belgium’s foreign affairs minister wrote on X that the announcement is a “provocation that contradicts European obligations”.
“Migration policy is a common challenge that must be tackled in an orderly fashion and with solidarity by all member states,” she added.
Nicole de Moor, the state secretary for asylum and migration, meanwhile warned that should the transfers happen, Belgium will not grant access to “migration flows that are instrumentalised in this way.”
Brussels mayor Philippe Close also attacked the plan, and called for the buses to be blocked at the border.
“How long are we going to tolerate these provocations from a country that we subsidise?” he in reference to the EU budget, which Hungary is a net recipient of, as per Euronews.