The European Union’s top court rejected a legal challenge Wednesday against a mandatory migrant relocation deal set in 2015.
The European Court of Justice overruled Hungary and Slovakia’s objections against migrant quotas introduced to ease the burden on countries such as Italy and Greece.
Hungary and Slovakia were only slated to take less than 2,000 migrants combined, but they have refused to abide by the decision. Slovakia has accepted about a dozen and Hungary has completely shut the door to any migrants.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said “politics has raped European law and values” in response to Wednesday’s ruling.
“The Hungarian government considers today’s decision by the European court to be appalling and irresponsible,” Szijjarto told a news conference, according to Reuters. “This decision jeopardizes the security and future of all of Europe.”
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said, “we fully respect the verdict of the European Court of Justice,” but added that his stance on the quotas “has not changed at all.”
Hungary has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a program to keep migrants out of the country. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration asked EU to foot half of the bill in late August, arguing the border fence is meant to serve the entire union. (RELATED: Hungary Responds To Legal Action From The EU By Sending $476 Million Bill For Border Fence)
“We would like to retain the elements of sovereignty, which are there by law, and we are against a stealth way of taking away elements of your sovereignty,” Orban’s spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said in a recent interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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