Hungary has been ordered by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to pay a fine of €200 million ($216 million) and a further €1 million per day for not implementing a previous ruling to change its asylum policies.
The decision by the judges in Luxembourg is the latest in a series of reprimands for Hungary, where the right-wing nationalist government has often been criticized by the European Commission for its rigid refugee policy.
In previous judgements, the ECJ has declared significant parts of the Hungarian asylum system to be unlawful.
Thursday's ruling followed a court judgement in December 2020 ordering Budapest to change its procedures for granting international protection and returning third-country nationals.
According to a court press release, the failure to implement that judgement "constitutes an unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law."
Budapest is "deliberately evading the application of the EU common policy on international protection," it said.
The judges in Luxembourg ruled that "Hungary has not taken the measures necessary to comply with the 2020 judgment as regards access to the international protection procedure, the right of applicants for international protection to remain in Hungary pending a final decision on their appeal against the rejection of their application and the removal of illegally staying third-country nationals."
Hungary is not the only country to have been fined in recent years.
In 2021, Poland was ordered by the ECJ to pay €1 million a day because it had failed to implement court rulings on a controversial judicial reform. The amount of the fine was later halved.
