BUDAPEST, Sept 13 (Askume) – Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday he was confident the European Commission would compensate Hungary for the costs of protecting the bloc’s external borders from illegal immigrants.
In 2015, Hungary closed a major transit route for millions of refugees fleeing war and poverty, winning support domestically but facing widespread criticism from many EU allies.
But Orban said Germany is finally starting to “wake up” to the adverse effects of immigration. Berlin also announced this week that it will introduce border controls at all of its land borders over the next six months .Recommendations were also made to reduce the number of refugees .
“Hungary must pay us back the huge sums they paid for border security,” he told state radio. “They will pay, it’s just a matter of time.”
On Thursday, his chief of staff said Hungary was ready to sue the European Commission over border security costs , which Budapest has said amount to 2 billion euros.
In June, the EU’s top court ruled that Hungary must pay a 200 million euro fine for failing to change its policy of handling migrants and asylum seekers at its borders , a decision Orban refused to accept at the time.
“Now the leaders of Western Europe must take another step, which is not particularly difficult intellectually: if they say the borders must be protected, then who actually does it,” he said of the fines on Friday. “If the people who guard the border are not the ones who guard the border, they should not be punished for it.”
