The European Commission has today decided to move forward on the infringement procedure against Hungary concerning its asylum legislation by sending a reasoned opinion. 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 this year, the Commission decided to send a complementary letter of formal notice on 17 May 2017. Following the analysis of the reply provided by the Hungarian authorities, and in view of the new legislation adopted by the Hungarian Parliament in October, the Commission will no longer 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 considers that the Hungarian legislation does 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.
