EU: Netherlands and Hungary want to leave the asylum system. Is that even possible? – Politics

First of all, it is just a political show when the governments of Hungary and the Netherlands act as if they will soon withdraw from the European asylum system. The message is aimed at the domestic audience: We don't care about Brussels, we are doing something about irregular immigration!

In fact, Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long since withdrawn from the European consensus and is de facto making it impossible for migrants to apply for asylum. The European Court of Justice has therefore sentenced the country to pay heavy fines.

Orbán's European Affairs Minister János Bóka is now joining the right-wing populist Geert Wilders, who controls the current Dutch government and this week spoke of a “mini-Nexit”: the Netherlands would say goodbye to the EU as far as refugee policy is concerned. But when you look at it closely, that is nonsense.

The German debates raise questions in the EU

The EU Commission has received a short letter from the Dutch Ministry of Asylum and Migration. It announces that they will demand the possibility of an opt-out – including the possibility of leaving the European asylum system. However, as long as they are not granted this opt-out, the Netherlands will continue to work on implementing the European asylum law reform that was only passed in April. For such an opt-out to be possible, the European treaties would have to be changed and all 27 states would have to agree. That will not happen.

The background to the statements from Budapest and The Hague is obviously the German debates. Both Viktor Orbán and Geert Wilders have expressed their approval of the change in Berlin's refugee policy, which is raising questions in the EU – especially against the backdrop of a possible change of government in 2025. Does Germany want to turn away asylum seekers at the borders, for whose procedures other states are considered responsible? Or will Germany even turn away migrants who want to apply for asylum?

The controls that have now been introduced at all German borders already give the impression that Germany is isolating itself. Even if they have been announced as a temporary solution until the new EU rules take effect. The Austrian government has already announced that it will not take any measures to seal itself off. If this mechanism is taken to its logical conclusion, states with EU external borders would be left alone with the migration problem. And the EU would collapse.

The “migration pact” passed in mid-April stipulates that asylum seekers with little prospect of being recognized will be held in camps on the EU's external borders and then deported. In return, the other states will show solidarity with the external border states – by taking in migrants or at least providing financial assistance. This is intended to bring order back to European asylum policy.

Migration policy will probably be a topic at the summit of heads of state and government in mid-October. Then it could also be a question of supplementing the migration pact with further measures to prevent migrants from coming to Europe – through more cooperation with third countries or outsourcing asylum procedures. The German government has so far been skeptical about these plans.