The European Commission has begun a process that will see the Hungarian government taken to the Court of Justice of the European Union over its tough laws against illegal immigration.
The “Stop Soros” law, a reference to pro-migration billionaire plutocrat George Soros, was put forth last year and is aimed at punishing NGOs and other non-government actors who engage in facilitating illegal migration.
The European Commission, an unelected body which serves as the EU’s major source of EU-level law as well as its executive, began infringement procedures against Hungary last August. A report from Hungary Today states that the Commission has now referred the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU, or ECJ).
Hungarian MP István Hollik, a member of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), the sister party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, said that the government was prepared for the procedure.
“The government believes that [the ‘Stop Soros’ laws] reflect the will of the Hungarian people and comply with the Geneva convention, the Schengen Agreement, and the Dublin Regulation,” he said.
Last year, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltán Kovács said of the legislation: “The new ‘Stop Soros’ legislative package puts forth a more rigorous response by declaring illegal immigration a grave threat to Hungary’s national security.”
“Committing such offences on a regular basis, providing financial support for illegal immigration or assisting illegal immigration in exchange for money will constitute felonies, and as such will be punishable by prison sentences of up to one year,” he added.
The EU’s infringement proceedings against Hungary over its anti-mass migration laws are nothing new. In October of 2017, the EU threatened the Hungarians over another NGO law designed to make foreign funding more transparent.
Prime Minister Orbán’s resistance to the open borders policies of George Soros also received criticism from members of the European People’s Party (EPP), a parliamentary group of which Fidesz is a member in the European Parliament.
The EPP suspended Fidesz earlier this year over a poster campaign in the lead up to the European Parliament elections that featured former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker alongside George Soros.