MIGRATION - Hungary: Q&A
Thank you.
The Commission just released its report on the state of play and the implementation of the migration pact, and Hungary repeatedly appears as an outlier and also frankly shows some Hungarian shortcomings,
has not requested a signed pact related allocations, has not submitted a national contingency plan,
did not pledge to join the solidarity pool.
And it's also among the countries with unresolved issues in, in different areas.
So my, my questions are, what concrete tools does the Commission have to, to ensure the compliance?
Secondly, at what point would a non-implementation become an actual infringement issue?
And then finally, if it doesn't really seem that Michael will, will change his approach to,
to Hungarian migration politics, so what, what would you do?
That's a bunch of questions at once. Let me start with the general questions.
So what's happened today is that the Commission has indeed issued its report on the implementation of the pact on migration and asylum.
You will remember the pact was adopted in May 2024 and it totally overhauls the EU's migration and asylum framework,
opening a new chapter in European migration management.
So now we have for the first time a common European framework. We have stronger external borders.
We have fair and firm asylum rules, and we have a fair balance between solidarity and responsibility.
Now, implementing this complex set of reforms requires, of course, significant legal and operational work from all sides.
We're talking here about 10 legislative acts which have to be implemented and, most importantly, operationalized.
What we can see today, roughly one month before the Pact will become applicable, that's in June,
is that overall implementation is well on track, with considerable progress made on all fronts.
Member States have significantly advanced in implementing the pact.
The key pillars of the new system are now in place.
However, continuous efforts are now needed to finalize the work on all building blocks,
and Member States are on a good path of doing so.
Again, what we need to underline is that the full application from June is an important step, but it is not the end of the process. It's not the end of the process.
This is a marathon, it's not a sprint.
Sustained efforts will be needed also beyond June to operationalize.
The pact on migration and asylum, but again we see positive results and we also have positive results overall.
The pact is part of our bigger comprehensive approach on migration. You know the figures are down.
I think we are down 55% in illegal arrivals over the past two years, and we are working on further strengthening the pact.
Now I'm coming to your other questions maybe before the follow-up comes, Magnus.
On Hungary, we will be working with the new government once it's in place.
And we will also do so on migration.
And of course we will not be speculating on actions of an incoming government that has yet to start. More questions for Markus?
Not the case as far as I can see. Let's go to, Jose from remote.
He has been waiting for a long time.
OK, again, my, it happened yesterday that my video camera wasn't working. Can I stay lasted? No, I'm so sorry. It's the rules of our press room.
It's, it's for the video purposes, for the interpreters, and, apologies about that.
I will come back to you though if you, no, no, you see, miracles happen. Go ahead then. Yeah, I will. Thank you.