Notwithstanding the European Court of Justice ruling, “we are not letting migrants in; Fortress Hungary is still standing,” Justice Minister Judit Varga said in the interview to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Referring to the situation along Poland and Lithuania’s border with Belarus, Varga welcomed the statements of European politicians “who formerly objected the idea of fences but now they support it”. She called it “irrational and morally dubious” that Hungary is threatened by fines and infringement procedures for what other countries are allowed to do. Varga insisted that Hungary should get reimbursement for constructing a fence along its southern border, a 1.6 billion euro project. “Only 1% of this amount has been reimbursed to date,” she said. The infringement procedures, the minister added, should be suspended as long as the EU “has no viable solution for handling migration”.
Hungary’s principle that the decision on allowing someone to enter the EU should be made outside the community’s border is now shared by other member states, too, she said.
In response to a question, Varga said that EU law should only have primacy over national legislation in areas that fall within EU competence. The EU Treaties have made it clear which areas belong to the EU’s scope of competences and which ones are national, she said.