Orbán Aide-Hungary Ready To Sue EU Over Border Protection Cost

Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a news conference in Budapest that the Hungarian gov't is prepared to sue the European Commission for the amount of ~EUR2bn over the cost associated with protecting the EU's external border. Gulyas: "Hungary has spent EUR2bn on protecting the Schengen border in the past years without getting any meaningful contribution whatsoever from the EU."

• The Hungarian gov'ts latest migration plan - bussing asylum seekers from its southern border with Serbia to Brussels - has garnered significant opprobrium in Belgium. Belgium’s State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor said "Unilaterally shifting responsibility through threats of this kind undermines solidarity and cooperation within the Union”, but these comments are likely to fall on deaf ears in Budapest. Indeed the PM's political direct Balázs Orbán replied “Let me remind you that Hungary is protecting the entire EU with its strict border control, while Brussels would rather prefer an open-border policy. Well, now you can have a taste of it.”
• Hungary has been a vocal opponent of the migration pact agreed by the EU in May, which intends to relieve the burden on countries receiving the highest number of migrants (namely Greece and Italy) by distributing them to those that receive fewer.
• Those unwilling to accept migrants must pay compensation, but Hungary argues (as highlighted above) that it has already paid enough to protect the EU's borders.