Following Germany, which introduced border controls at its borders to combat illegal immigration, the Netherlands has requested an exception to the pan-European migration policy. The authorities of this country have officially informed the European Commission (EC) of their intention to abandon the current migration rules in the future and return the powers in matters of asylum to the level of national legislation. A similar wish was announced almost immediately in Hungary, which in fact, in recent years, has not particularly followed the pan-European rules in this area.
That a tougher immigration policy revision was imminent in the Netherlands became clear immediately after the far-right Geert Wilders Party for Freedom came to power. And although the notorious fighter against illegal immigrants did not make it to the prime minister’s chair, he was able to push through the right-wing coalition government’s plan to introduce “the strictest asylum regime in history” in the Netherlands.
This week, The Hague decided that it was time to coordinate some of its plans with the European Union. To this end, Migration and Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber sent a letter to the European Commission asking for an exception to the general EU migration rules for the Netherlands. “We need to re-make our own asylum policy!” Ms Faber said on Wednesday on the social network X.
Under the migration deal, which the EU approved this spring after several years of battles and disputes, each member state will be obliged to accept a certain number of asylum seekers (about 30,000 are expected in Brussels annually) in proportion to the size of the national economy and population. Those countries that do not want to accept people will be forced to help the most receptive migrant-receiving countries with staff, equipment or means to accommodate the migrants (20,000 euros for each rejected asylum seeker).
Upon closer examination of the letter from The Hague, it turned out that the Netherlands does not in fact intend to withdraw from participation in the new EU migration pact, but only hopes to do so at a later stage, “if amendments are made” to this document. In fact, it is not entirely clear when, as on the same day the EC stated that there are no plans to make changes to the migration pact in the near future.
Budapest immediately rushed to queue up for theoretically possible future indulgences from Brussels. “Decisive action is needed to curb illegal migration, the Hungarian government will join the Netherlands in asking for an exemption from EU asylum and migration rules if the Treaty amendment allows it,” Hungarian EU Affairs Minister János Bóka wrote on social media.
In fact, Hungarians have already made exceptions to general European rules on migration and asylum.
In late 2020, the European Court sided with the EC, which claimed that Budapest was violating EU law by allowing applicants to be unlawfully detained in “transit zones” and blocking their right to appeal. And in June this year, the court decided to fine Hungary €200 million for an “extremely serious and unprecedented violation of EU law” in the field of migration. At the same time, the country was also imposed a daily fine of €1 million for every day that Budapest continues to ignore the court verdict. And since Hungary refused to pay the fine, nor did it show any willingness to make the necessary changes to national migration legislation, the second part of the fine has already reached almost €100 million.
This week, Brussels finally figured out how to collect the debt from the Hungarians. “In accordance with the current rules, the Commission is moving to the compensation procedure,” the European Commission said on Wednesday, announcing that the EU will deduct 200 million euros of payments owed to the country from the pan-European budget.
For the foreseeable future, the EU’s problems around migration will almost certainly not be limited to Hungary alone, which has long firmly occupied the role of the main headache for a united Europe.
Over the past month, Germany has confidently joined the ranks of troublemakers in the field of migration policy. Against the backdrop of the growing popularity of right-wing and left-wing populist forces, which unanimously advocate stricter immigration measures, the current German authorities decided to take the initiative. Shortly after the high-profile knife attack on people in the city of Solingen by an immigrant, the ruling coalition stepped up controls on asylum seekers, simplified the deportation of illegal immigrants and, as of this week, also resumed border controls at all its land borders to counter illegal immigration. For which it was immediately criticised by other EU members.
For the largest opposition group in the Bundestag, represented by the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, this was not enough. In early September, immediately after the elections in Thuringia and Saxony, where the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany had strengthened its position unprecedentedly, the leader of the German conservatives and candidate for the country’s future chancellor (and with a high probability of victory next autumn) Friedrich Merz called for the complete abolition of the right of asylum in Germany and for the rejection of refugees already at the border.
