BREAKING NEWS – EU court dismisses Hungary, Slovakia migrant case – UPDATE

The European Court of Justice today dismissed a case launched by Hungary and Slovakia challenging the legality of the EU’s migrant resettlement scheme.

“The court dismisses the actions brought by Slovakia and Hungary against the provisional mechanism for the mandatory relocation of asylum seekers,” the Luxembourg-based court said in a statement. “The mechanism actually contributes to enabling Greece and Italy to deal with the impact of the 2015 migration crisis and is proportionate.”

The Hungarian government turned to the Luxembourg-based court in December 2015 over the quota scheme, asking the ECJ to annul the European Council resolution on relocating 120,000 refugees to member states on a mandatory basis.

The scheme was approved by the EU interior ministers in a majority vote a few months before despite Hungary’s objection. Subsequently, Hungary advanced ten arguments, substantive and procedural, in favour of abolishing the quota system.

It argued that obligation for Hungary to receive 1,294 asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece should be annulled.

In July the court’s advocate general in charge proposed that the case should be dismissed, arguing that the two countries’ legal arguments were unfounded.

The decision was made by the court’s 15-member Grand Chamber with a simple majority of votes.

As we wrote on August, the Ministry of Justice’s Minister of State for European and International Judicial Cooperation declared at a press conference in Budapest: “The Government will not back down in the quota case and has also made this absolutely clear in its reply to the European Commission”.

UPDATE

Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, told a news conference that the ruling was “outrageous and irresponsible”. “The real battle is only just beginning,” he said, vowing that Hungary would exhaust every avenue of legal appeal in order to guarantee that “not a single person is resettled in Hungary against the will of the Hungarian people”.

Szijjártó insisted that the court had made a politically motivated decision that would compromise Europe’s future and its security. He said the ruling went against the interests of European nations and the interests of the Hungarian nation. “Politics has raped European law,” he said.

The minister said the ruling went against Europe’s basic treaty in “declaring” that the European Commission’s powers override those of EU member states. “This is unacceptable and everything will be done to ensure that the country is protected,” he added.

Szijjártó said it was high time to put the issue of mandatory resettlement quotas “behind us”. The scheme, he said, had proven to be a bad response to illegal migration, since only 25 percent of the designated number of migrants had been successfully relocated just ahead of the Sept. 26 deadline.

FIDESZ

Ruling Fidesz group leader Lajos Kósa said that the ruling “gives the green light for the European Commission to implement the Soros plan”. He insisted that under a scheme devised by billionaire George Soros the EU must accommodate one million immigrants a year. He added that Hungary was against any such plan because it would compromise Europe’s security and national interests.

Jobbik

Opposition Jobbik rejected the ECJ’s decision, calling it “outrageous”. No court or EU member state can force another nation to “alter its ethnic makeup” against its will, Jobbik spokesman Ádám Mirkóczki told a press conference. He said his party would re-submit to parliament a bill that would prohibit the settlement of all migrants in Hungary, regardless of whether they are rich of poor.