Brussels to sue Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic over asylum-seekers

The European Commission said Thursday it would take Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over their refusal to host asylum seekers.

The Commission also said it would take Hungary to the ECJ, the EU’s highest court, over two other controversial legal matters: its higher education law, which critics say curbs academic freedom, and its law on foreign-funded NGOs, which some Hungarians argue is designed to weaken independent civil society.

The Commission also took legal proceedings over Hungary’s asylum law to the next step, by issuing a formal request for Budapest to comply with EU law. It said Budapest’s response to a Commission letter expressing concerns about the law was “found to be unsatisfactory as it failed to address the majority of the concerns.”

Hungary has been given a deadline of two months to respond to the latest step in the Commission’s action over the law. If it fails to comply, it will also be referred to the ECJ.

Critics say the higher education law aims to weaken the Budapest-based Central European University, a popular university with foreign students founded by the billionaire George Soros, who has a long-running feud with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.