Court orders Hungary to pay €200m fine over asylum

Hungary has been ordered by the European Court of Justice to pay a fine of 200 million euros (216 million dollars) and a further one million euros per day for failing to comply with the bloc’s asylum rules.

The ruling followed a previous court judgement in December 2020 concerning procedures for granting international protection and returning third-country nationals.

According to a court statement released on Thursday, the failure to implement that judgement “constitutes an unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law’’.

The judges ruled that Hungary has not taken the measures necessary to comply with the 2020 judgment as regards access to the international protection procedure.

“The right of applicants for international protection to remain in Hungary pending a final decision on their appeal against the rejection of their application and the removal of illegally staying third-country nationals.’’