EU Rule of Law Spat: Hungary Court Opens Way to Challenge Bloc's Rulings - Bloomberg
Hungary’s top court ruled the country can enforce its constitution over European Union regulations in limited cases, giving Prime Minister Viktor Orban ammunition to defy a European Union ruling that struck down his crackdown on asylum seekers
Hungary’s top court ruled the country can prioritize its constitution over European Union law in limited cases, giving Prime Minister Viktor Orban ammunition to defy an EU ban of his crackdown on asylum seekers.
The judgment by the Budapest-based Constitutional Court on Friday pushed Hungary toward joining Poland in challenging the cornerstone of the 27-nation bloc’s legal foundation. The Orban cabinet’s petition was “unacceptable” for questioning the primacy of EU law, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said last month.
Orban’s government seized on the ruling and is likely to leverage it in the run-up to Hungary’s most closely-fought general election since he returned to power in 2010. The premier brandished his anti-immigrant stance when he won a third straight term in 2018 in a campaign that included erecting a border fence to keep out asylum seekers.
“The Constitutional Court’s ruling backs Hungarian immigration policy and will help maintain it,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters at a briefing in Budapest.
Last year, EU judges ruled that Hungary can’t hold asylum seekers indefinitely in a transit area on the border with Serbia, adding that applicants also have a right to judicial reviews of their applications.
The government, which has been deporting asylum seekers often without hearings, filed a legal challenge at the Budapest-based court, arguing that complying with the EU judgment would violate Hungary’s constitutionally enshrined right to determine who to let into the country.
Without clearly siding with the cabinet, the court -- stacked with ruling party appointees during Orban’s rule -- said that in areas of shared legal jurisdiction between a member state and the EU, Hungary had the right to act in a way that protected its sovereignty.
While the government trumpeted a legal victory, the court didn’t state that Hungarian law had primacy over EU law and the cabinet “has not been given a green light” to disregard the top EU chamber’s verdict, according to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights group.
‘Power Play’
“The government’s attempt was very dangerous,” the group said in a statement. “Essentially, it tried to state through the Constitutional Court that EU legal obligations can essentially become a pawn in the government’s power play.”
Under EU rules, member states are required to process asylum applications and provide applicants with shelter, food and other basic necessities while respecting their fundamental human rights.
If Orban’s government continues to flout the EU court’s ruling, it risks being slapped with daily fines like Poland, which has stated the EU has no jurisdiction to influence Polish judicial matters because the country has not deferred such powers to the bloc.
The commission, the EU’s Brussels-based executive arm, has already asked for daily fines against Hungary for failing to overhaul its draconian asylum laws that have led authorities to expel asylum seekers.
Both Hungary and Poland face formal EU probes over the erosion of the rule of law and a delay in receiving of billions of euros of pandemic aid due to graft concerns.
— With assistance by Veronika Gulyas, and Marton Kasnyik
source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-10/hungary-court-opens-way-to-challenge-eu-law-in-nuanced-ruling
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