The showdown between Budapest and Brussels over migration policy and the rule of law is quickly escalating.
The Belgian government on Monday came forcefully against Hungary’s intended plan to bus migrants to Brussels in retaliation for the €200 million fine imposed in June by the European Court of Justice, which Budapest refuses to pay.
No transfer has yet taken place and it’s unclear when they will happen, if at all.
The announcement “is a provocation that contradicts European obligations,” said Hadja Lahbib, Belgium’s foreign affairs minister. “Migration policy is a common challenge that must be tackled in an orderly fashion and with solidarity by all member states.”
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.”
“Hungary’s threat to send migrants to Brussels on its own initiative and without consultation shows a lack of respect for the European institutions and the common policy,” de Moor said in a statement.
The state secretary instructed Belgium’s permanent representative to the EU to discuss the matter with his Hungarian counterpart and asked the European Commission to respond “strongly and decisively.”
Philippe Close, the mayor of the city of Brussels, also decried the plan and demanded Prime Minister Alexander De Croo “block(s) these buses at the border.”
“How long are we going to tolerate these provocations from a country that we subsidise?” he said, referring to the EU budget, of which Hungary is a net recipient.
The latest row stems from the ECJ ruling that found Hungary had committed an “unprecedented and exceptionally serious breach of EU law” when it introduced restrictions on the right to asylum. The court slapped the country with a €200 million fine, as a lump sum, and a €1 million fine for each day the wrongdoing persists.
Viktor Orbán reacted furiously to the verdict, calling it “outrageous and unacceptable.”
“It seems that illegal migrants are more important to the Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens,” he said in June. (The ECJ is based in Luxembourg.)
The showdown quickly escalated: last month, Orbán’s deputies threatened to pay irregular migrants a “one-way ticket” from Hungary to the Belgian capital. On Friday, State Secretary Bence Rétvári held a press conference to present the buses that would be presumably used in the scheme, with illuminated signs reading “Röszke-Brussels.” He said the transport would be offered “voluntarily” and “free of charge.”
“If Brussels wants illegal migrants, Brussels can have them,” Rétvári said.
On the same day, Orbán called for an opt-out clause of the EU’s migration policies, a proposal also included in the coalition agreement of the new Dutch government. The idea is considered far-fetched as it would entail reopening agreed-upon delicate legislation or a revision to the EU treaties.
The row is taking place in parallel to a dispute over Hungary’s recent decision to extend its National Card scheme to Russian and Belarusian citizens, which the Commission warns could pose a threat to the “entire” Schengen Area.
