Hungary’s government was fined in June 2024 for violating EU migration policies, mainly by detaining asylum seekers in transit zones and deporting migrants.
On Wednesday, European Commission spokesperson Balázs Ujvári confirmed that Hungary had missed the September deadline to pay the €200 million fine. “We now plan to deduct €200 million from future EU budget payments to Hungary,” he said in Brussels.
Hungary had until mid-September to explain how it would comply with the court ruling, but according to the Commission, no response was received. As a result, on September 16, the Commission demanded payment for the first three months of penalties, amounting to €93 million for the period from June to September 2024.
Previously, in 2020 the European Court of Justice ruled that Hungary had breached EU laws related to international protection applications, including the practice of "pushbacks," where migrants are forced back to the country they crossed before entering Hungary.
After the ruling, Hungary promised to close its transit zones, but the EU court found that Budapest had not fully complied with the decision.
In June 2024, the court imposed its €200 million fine and warned that Hungary could face further daily penalties of €1 million if it did not align its migration laws with the ruling.
Hungary suggested that its costs for securing the EU's external border with Serbia should offset the fines. The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, claims the EU owes his country €2 billion for border security over the past decade. However, Ujvári explained that the EU's penalty procedures do not allow for such deductions.
