Hungary ready to buy migrants one-way ticket to Brussels, says minister

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Hungary is ready to provide one-way tickets to Brussels for migrants attempting to enter the EU, a minister said on Thursday, in response to a heavy €200 million fine imposed by EU’s top court.

Speaking at a news conference in the capital Budapest, Gergely Gulyas, the minister for the prime minister's office, reiterated the country’s staunch opposition to the EU’s migration pact which includes imposing migrant quotas on member states, according to a statement by the government.

If Brussels wants migrants, they will get them," Gulyas said, adding: "We will give everyone a one-way ticket if the EU makes it impossible to stop migration at the external border."

He also emphasized that Hungary remains committed to maintaining its sovereignty and control over its national policies, including in migration domain.

In June, the Court of Justice of the EU ordered Hungary to pay a lump sum of €200 million ($216 million) over "serious infringement" of the bloc’s asylum rules.

In a statement, the court said that it also ordered Hungary to pay a penalty payment of €1 million per day of delay for "failure to comply with a judgment of the Court of Justice."

"That failure, which consists in deliberately avoiding the application of a common EU policy as a whole, constitutes an unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law," it added.