On Friday 1 September, the European Commission said that it supported measures to manage the European Union’s external borders, for example using equipment and surveillance measures, but it has never financed the building of fencing to keep out immigrants.
"And this will not change", said European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein at a press conference.
The Commission was responding to an announcement by Hungary on Thursday that Budapest is planning to ask the EU to pay half of the costs for Viktor Orbán’s government setting up a barbed wire fence in the summer of 2015 along 175 km of the Hungarian-Serbian border (in the south) and then on a large stretch of the Hungarian-Croatian border (also in the south).
The Hungarian government is demanding payment of half of the €800 million that it says it spent on erecting the two fences to close the border. The head of the Hungarian prime minister’s cabinet, Janos Lazar, is quoted by French news agency AFP as saying that border protection is a matter of European solidarity and the EU must make a tangible demonstration of this. Brussels has to pay its share, he said, as it has done with Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, countries through which immigrants enter Europe.
Viktor Orbán informed the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, of the request for reimbursement of "exceptional costs" in a letter. The Commission ironically noted that Hungary now recognises that solidarity is an important principle for the European Union and values the support that the EU can provide to protect common interests. Hungary and Slovakia have taken the relocation decisions for asylum-seekers taken by the Council in 2015 (see EUROPE 11837) to the European Court of Justice.
The ruling on this controversial case is expected on 6 September, and the relocation programme ends on 30 September.
The Commission adds that it is fully committed to supporting all member states in protection of the EU’s external borders and to manage migration. Through its specialist services, the Commission provides practical and financial support for external border management and migration. Indeed, it mobilised €93.4 million in 2014-2020, as well as €6.7 million in emergency funding.
The European Border and Coastguard Agency has deployed an operation at Hungary’s border with Serbia that currently has 18 officers deployed to help with border management. The level of operational support is decided upon in agreement with the Hungarian authorities.
The Commission says that if Hungary now calls for additional support, the Commission is prepared to consider the request rapidly and provide appropriate aid if the situation so requires. It added that it is important to remember that solidarity goes both ways and all member states must be prepared to contribute. It is not a pick-and-choose menu for border management to be rejected when it comes to complying with jointly agreed relocation decisions. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)