Europe Hungary also wants to apply for an exit from EU asylum rules

SDA

18.9.2024 - 23:49

ARCHIVE - Workers attach barbed wire to the fence along Hungary's border with Serbia. Hungary's government has decided to raise the four-meter-high border fence that was erected in 2015 on the shared border sections with Serbia and Croatia. Photo: Tibor Rosta/MTI/AP/dpa
ARCHIVE - Workers attach barbed wire to the fence along Hungary's border with Serbia. Hungary's government has decided to raise the four-meter-high border fence that was erected in 2015 on the shared border sections with Serbia and Croatia. Photo: Tibor Rosta/MTI/AP/dpa
Keystone

Like the Netherlands, Hungary wants to withdraw from the European Union's asylum rules.

This was announced by Hungary's Minister for Europe, Janos Boka. "Tough action is needed against illegal migration", he wrote on X. That is why Budapest wants to apply for an exit from these rules if an amendment to the EU treaties allows this.

The Netherlands had previously applied to the EU Commission to withdraw from the EU asylum rules. The right-wing populist Geert Wilders, who is in the governing coalition for the first time with his radical-right Party for Freedom (PVV), spoke of an important signal "that a new wind is blowing in the Netherlands".

It is unlikely that the Netherlands and Hungary will be successful. As a rule, all 27 EU states must agree to such an exception. In addition, the EU countries have already agreed on a new asylum reform and must now implement it.

Hungary's right-wing populist government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been pursuing an anti-migrant policy for years and is therefore in a permanent dispute with the EU Commission. Budapest is currently refusing to pay a fine of 200 million euros imposed by the European Court of Justice due to its restrictive asylum policy. The EU Commission therefore wants to deduct the money from future EU payments to Hungary.

SDA