In a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Thursday, Pál Völner, State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, said that “The departing European Commission continues to insist on the resettlement of migrants in Hungary. In relation to this issue the position of the Hungarian government remains unchanged: Hungary will have nothing to do with any mandatory quota – either one-off or permanent”.
In response to a motion in the court case on the quota put forward on Thursday by the European Court of Justice’s Advocate General, Mr. Völner pointed out that the European Commission took Hungary to court for its refusal to implement a one-off mandatory quota in 2015, “which was pushed through with trickery”, and which would have required Hungary to accept the settlement of 1,294 migrants.
Quota cases against Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic began in 2017, after Brussels claimed that these countries had not complied with the 2015 migrant quota. The State Secretary said that in its submission the Brussels Commission has asked the Court to rule that Hungary has violated its obligation to accept resettlement of migrants as stipulated by the Council of the European Union in 2015, by its failure to report every three months on the number of migrants that could be admitted to its territory at short notice, and by its failure to accept any migrants.
Mr. Völner stated that from the outset the Government has been convinced that “this one-off quota is only the beginning, and Brussels’ true goal is to introduce a permanent and automatic quota with no upper limit on numbers – and the signs of this are still clear today”. He observed that the departing European Commission and pro-immigration forces in the European Parliament are now, for instance, attempting to convince Member States to admit migrants through expansion of the Malta quota agreement, and also to place the incoming European Commission on a path of no return. The Deputy State Secretary said that “On several occasions the Hungarian people have made it clear that they do not want Hungary to become an immigrant country, and that no one other than us may decide on who we live alongside”.
He explained that Hungary had earlier turned to the European Court of Justice to appeal the 2015 Council decision, which was “adopted with trickery”, and that the country contests the legality of the quota decision and rejects the application of double standards. As evidence of the latter, he cited the fact that the European Commission has launched infringement proceedings against only three Member States – Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic – when in fact many other EU Member States have also failed to implement the quota resolution. In fact, he noted, the number of migrants actually transferred at EU level has been less than one third of the specified quota obligation.
In September 2017 the European Commission rejected the legal action launched by Hungary and Slovakia.
Mr. Völner added that “Even after this, the Government naturally did not admit any migrants, as the deadline for implementing the quota resolution had expired, and its retrospective implementation cannot be enforced.”
The European Commission nevertheless launched legal proceedings to force Hungary to implement the lapsed Council resolution. The State Secretary stated that the court case, which began in December 2017, reached a new stage on Thursday with the submission of the Advocate General’s motion. He pointed out that the Advocate General’s motion is not officially binding on the European Commission.
The Court’s ruling is expected to be issued in the first half of 2020, Mr. Völner said, adding that “The Hungarian government will not give up the fight to enforce the will of the Hungarian people”.