The Constitutional Court, not the Court of Justice of the European Union, must define the limits of the competences exercised jointly by Hungary and the EU, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on public radio on Sunday.
At the time of our accession to the EU, we committed to exercising certain competences jointly with the institutions of the EU, but this principle applies only in designated areas, Gergely Gulyás said on Kossuth Rádió. The joint exercise of competences applies, for example, to rules governing competition on the common market, but not to the defence of borders and the indigenous population “on which only the Hungarian government and voting citizens have the right to decide” he added. Gulyás said the Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that Hungary has the right to defend its borders from migration independently of the EU, just as it is obliged to defend Hungarians from the harmful effects of migration on society, and that rules pertaining to the Hungarian population and the state structure belong to the national competence and take precedence over any EU rule or norm. The ruling gives the Hungarian government a clear mandate to continue its migration policy as it has done until now, he said.
He noted that the European Court of Human Rights had earlier found Hungary’s institution of transit zones to be lawful, while the Court of Justice of the EU issued a ruling to the contrary, adding that the decision was taken “applying completely unacceptable reasoning”. Hungary has taken sufficient measures to comply with the court’s ruling, shutting down the transit zones, ensuring the defence of the border and allowing applications for asylum to be submitted at diplomatic missions in surrounding countries, he said.
Gulyás said member states urged a change to the EU’s migration policy at the last EU summit, pressing for more effective border defence and support for countries defending the frontier. The European Commission and its president is “not a boss”, but an employee of the heads of state and government of member states whose task is to make recommendations to ensure effective border defence, he added. “Nothing can do more harm to the European Union than if the voice of member states’ falls on deaf ears in Brussels,” he said, adding that such has been the case with the matter of migration.
Gulyás said powers that earlier supported migration now agree that the 2015 migration crisis and the accompanying violation of rules must not be repeated.
The leaders of member states must force Brussels to accept the will of their own societies no matter the degree of the lack of “sober, reasonable voices in the bubble of Brussels”, he added.
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