Commission sends reasoned opinion to Hungary on its asylum legislation

Further information:

Following the analysis of the reply provided by the Hungarian authorities, and in view of the legislation adopted by the Hungarian Parliament in October 2017, the Commission decided not to pursue four out of the eleven issues identified in the complementary letter of formal notice.

The reply provided by the Hungarian authorities, however, was still found to be unsatisfactory as it failed to address the majority of the concerns. The Commission still considered that the Hungarian legislation did not comply with EU law, in particular Directive 2013/32/EU on Asylum Procedures, Directive 2008/115/EC on Return, Directive 2013/33/EU on Reception Conditions and several provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Background information:

The Commission initiated the infringement procedure against Hungary in December 2015. Following a series of exchanges both at political and technical level with the Hungarian authorities and the concerns raised by the amendments to the Hungarian asylum law introduced in March 2017, the Commission decided to send a complementary letter of formal notice on 17 May 2017.

A reasoned opinion is the second step in the infringement procedure and consists of a formal request to comply with EU law, calling on the Member State concerned to inform the Commission of the measures taken to comply within a specified period.

Two months were given Hungary to respond to the reasoned opinion. If no reply was received, or if the observations presented in the reply were not satisfactory, the Commission could decide to move to the next stage of the infringement procedure, and refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU.

The European Commission announced on 7 December 2017 it was moving forward on the infringement procedure against Hungary concerning its asylum legislation by sending a reasoned opinion.