The European Union's reform of its asylum and migration rules is 'another nail in the coffin' of the bloc, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on April 11
'The MigrationPact is another nail in the coffin of the European Union. Unity is dead, secure borders are no more. Hungary will never give in to the mass migration frenzy! We need a change in Brussels in order to StopMigration!' Orban said in a post on X.
The EU parliament on Wednesday adopted a sweeping reform of Europe's asylum policies that will both harden border procedures and force all the bloc's 27 nations to share responsibility.
The pact also requires EU countries to take in thousands of asylum-seekers from 'frontline' states such as Italy and Greece, or to provide money or other resources to the under-pressure nations.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the vote, saying it will 'secure European borders... while ensuring the protection of the fundamental rights' of migrants.
The new rules include rapid processing of asylum applications, including at the borders of the European Union, improved identification of individuals upon arrival, mandatory security, vulnerability, and health checks for persons irregularly entering the EU, as well as better crisis response and a new voluntary scheme for resettling refugees from third countries.
The EP has supported new uniform standards for all member states for recognizing refugee status or status of subsidiary protection.
Member states must also ensure equal standards for receiving asylum seekers, such as in their accommodation, education, and health care.
The Prime Minister's Office head said the EP made a 'bad decision' by endorsing the new migration pact. Speaking in the first government press briefing in two months, Gergely Gulyas said the legislation had passed 'with only a 55-56% majority in the EP where 70-80% of lawmakers are pro-migration showed how extremely bad the proposal' was.
He said Hungary was backing Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who, he noted, had made it clear that Poland would not take part in the redistribution or relocation of migrants, and neither would it pay compensation for refusing to take in migrants.
