“The EU will deduct 200 million euros in fines from aid funds for Hungary due to the country’s refusal to pay The fine was imposed for long-term restrictions on the right to asylum, which Hungary refuses to cancel.”, — write on: unn.ua
The fine must be paid to the European Commission once.
Budapest missed the first deadline at the end of August, prompting the EU executive to issue a second payment request with a September 17 deadline.
Since this request was also ignored, the European Commission said on Wednesday that it would activate the so-called “offset procedure” to deduct a fine of 200 million euros from Hungary’s share of EU funds.
As part of this procedure, the financial packages expected to be allocated to Hungary in the coming weeks will be considered. About 21 billion euros from the cohesion and recovery funds intended for Hungary remain frozen due to the decline in the level of law and order.
“From today, we are moving to the phase of “mutual offsetting”, – said a representative of the European Commission on Wednesday.
“Theoretically any payments can be considered, nothing is ruled out, but obviously it will take some time, we need to determine what exactly and identify the payments that can absorb the relevant penalty.”
At the same time, Hungary faces a fine of 1 million euros for every day it continues to ignore the European Court’s ruling and maintains restrictions that prevent migrants from enjoying full access to the right to asylum. The total amount of the fine is close to 100 million euros.
Budapest must respond to the European Commission explaining what measures, if any, it has put in place to comply with the court’s ruling. Since no response was received, the executive authority sent the first payment demand for the collection of the fine, which is allotted 45 days.
The ruling of the European Court, in which the judge called Hungary’s actions an “unprecedented and exceptionally serious violation of EU law,” provoked a furious reaction from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who called the multimillion-dollar fine “outrageous and unacceptable.”
In response, his government threatened to send migrants to Belgium “voluntarily” and “free of charge,” in what would be an unprecedented case of the instrumentalization of migration by one EU member state against another.
The migrants have yet to be transported, but the scheme has already come under fierce criticism from the Belgian and EU authorities.
The row, the latest chapter in a decade-long standoff between Brussels and Budapest, is fueled by growing concern over Hungary’s decision to extend its National Card scheme to citizens of Russia and Belarus, which the Commission has warned could allow sanctions to be circumvented and pose a threat to “the whole” of Schengen zones
Budapest categorically denies any risks to internal security, arguing that the extension of the system to Russian and Belarusian citizens is necessary to alleviate the problem of labor shortages within the country and to give employers a “simpler procedure” to attract foreign workers.