Expiring emergency migration laws could be key to unlocking Hungary's EU fines
Brussels and Budapest are exploring whether letting two temporary Hungarian migration laws lapse – without softening border policy – could provide a path to ending the EU's €1m-a-day fine imposed on Hungary, but experts remain doubtful it will be enough to satisfy the ECJ.
Phasing out two temporary Hungarian migration laws could provide a route to ending the European Union's €1m-a-day fine against Budapest, according to people familiar with talks between the Hungarian government and the European Commission.
The move would not require Prime Minister Péter Magyar to soften Hungary's migration policy, Euronews understands – an idea he has repeatedly stressed as a non-starter even as he pushes Brussels to lift the penalty.
Hungary has lost €910m since the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in 2024 that Viktor Orbán's government had persistently failed to apply EU standards in its treatment of asylum seekers.
In the aftermath of the 2015–16 migration crisis, Hungary effectively barred asylum seekers from lodging claims on its territory by erecting a fence along its border with Serbia, building prison-like transit zones, and pushing migrants back into Serbia. Budapest also declared that asylum seekers must apply for international protection while still in Serbia.
Magyar, who succeeded Orbán after April's elections, has called on European counterparts to resolve the fine, but vowed to keep his predecessor's contested migration policy in place.
The two measures under scrutiny are the "state of crisis due to mass migration", renewed roughly every six months since 2015 and used to deviate from several EU legal provisions – due to expire on 7 September unless extended – and a separate 2025 law requiring asylum seekers to register their intent at a Hungarian embassy abroad before applying in-country, which is set to lapse at the end of the year.
The prospect that both measures could be allowed to expire is seen by some in Brussels as a potential step forward.
"It's for Hungary and the court to see what can be done," said European Commission spokesperson Markus Lammert. "What we can do from the Commission's side is engage closely with the Hungarian authorities on the matter."
"We expect an early resolution of the suspension of the €1m-per-day fine imposed under the previous Hungarian government," Magyar said on Wednesday, following a meeting in Budapest with European Council President António Costa.
"I emphasised that, in light of what happened in Ceuta this summer, Hungary will continue to maintain the necessary legal environment and physical border closure to stem illegal migration."
Magyar also met European People's Party leader Manfred Weber to discuss the matter, and called for the fines to be reimbursed through the EU's next seven-year budget.
"We expect our efforts to be recognised at the European level," he said.
Doubts remain
Even so, experts remain doubtful this would be enough to halt the fines.
"Amending the migration-related laws adopted in 2015–16 would have been an opportunity to avoid the fines," EU law expert Tamás Lattmann told Euronews.
"The only way to place any kind of cap on the fines would have been for the government, at the moment the provisions of the Migration Pact entered into force, to declare that Hungarian law and EU standards were now aligned on key points – meaning the underlying legal violation had ceased, and the penalty clock would stop running. But that did not happen."
The EU's Migration Pact, designed to strengthen external borders and share responsibility for asylum seekers among member states, entered into force over the summer, but Magyar has rejected its application in Hungary.
He has also repeatedly called on the EU to reimburse the fines already paid, a request that is technically and legally unworkable. Following the ECJ ruling, the fines accrued were deducted directly from funds earmarked for Hungary.
"I find it quite shameless that Magyar wants reimbursement of fines for a violation of EU law that has not been resolved at all," said Tineke Strik, the Dutch Green MEP who serves as the European Parliament's rapporteur for Hungary. "Granting reimbursement of fines imposed by the court would also mean the EU itself undermining or discrediting its own judgments."
On Tuesday, Magyar said Hungary would seek credit for the fines imposed so far during negotiations on the new EU budget. Technically, the EU is not prepared to label any funding as reimbursement for past fines, as this would risk sending the wrong message.
Poland has previously lost hundreds of millions of euros in funding over ECJ fines linked to its judicial reforms.
However, officials involved in the budget talks say "everything is possible," and Hungary could still negotiate additional resources for border protection – resources it could present domestically as a political win.
Another option under discussion is for the EU to rename or informally reallocate existing funding lines earmarked for Hungary in a way that could support Magyar's messaging at home.
