By refusing to pay the fine, Orban could lose some of the funds allocated to him by the EU

EU plans to deduct €200 million in fines from funds EU Hungary, as it refuses to pay the fine imposed by the European Court.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called the European Court's ruling “outrageous” and appears to will soon be deprived of some of the funds allocated to it by the EU.

The European Commission has launched special procedure for deducting the fine of 200 million eurosimposed by the ECA on Hungary for long-term restrictions on the right to asylum. The fine must be paid to the European Commission in one lump sum.

The first deadline for paying the fine was at the end of August, but Budapest ignored his. This prompted the executive to send a second request for payment with a deadline of September 17. However, this request also remained unanswered, so on Wednesday, September 18, the European Commission announced that it would activate the so-called “set-off procedure”to deduct a fine of 200 million euros from Hungary's share of EU funds.

The process will examine the financial packages that will be allocated to Hungary in the coming weeks. Around 21 billion euros of cohesion and recovery funds earmarked for Hungary remain frozen due to the deterioration of the rule of law. On Wednesday, 18 September, a spokeswoman for the European Commission said:

“From today we are moving to the offsetting phase. In theory, any payments can be considered, nothing is excluded, but obviously it will take some time, we need to determine what exactly and identify the payments that can absorb the corresponding fine.”

Parallel Hungary faces €1 million fine for every day it ignores ECHR ruling and maintaining restrictions that prevent migrants from enjoying full access to the right to asylum. The total amount is approaching 100 million euros.

Budapest must respond to the EC, explaining what measures, if any, it has taken to comply with the court's decision. Since no response has been received, the executive has issued a first payment demand for the fine, for which it has 45 days.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reacted furiously to a ruling by the European Court of Justice in which a judge called Hungary's actions “an unprecedented and exceptionally serious breach of EU law.” He called the multi-million euro fine “outrageous and unacceptable.”

In response, the Hungarian government threatened to send the migrants to Belgium “voluntarily” and “free of charge”, which would be an unprecedented case of instrumentalization of migration by one EU member state against another. The migrant transport has not yet taken place, but the scheme has already come under heavy criticism from Belgian and EU authorities.

The row, which marks the latest chapter in a decade-long standoff between Brussels and Budapest, is being exacerbated by growing concerns about Hungary's decision to extend its National Card scheme to citizens of Russia and Belaruswhich, according to the EC's warning, could allow sanctions to be circumvented and pose a threat to the “entire” Schengen area.

Budapest, however, categorically denies any risks to internal security, arguing that extending the system to Russian and Belarusian citizens is necessary to alleviate the problem of domestic labor shortages and provide employers with a “simpler procedure” for hiring foreign workers.

However, despite the tensions, there was a hint of rapprochement this week after Janos Bóka, Hungary's European Affairs Minister, met with Ylva Johansson, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, to discuss the ECJ ruling and the National Card.

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