Taking Back Control From Brussels: The Renationalization of EU Migration and Asylum Policies

On January 22, the MCC hosted the presentation of the report Taking Back Control from Brussels, bringing together policymakers and experts to assess the structural failures of European migration policy and to explore possible legal and institutional alternatives.

In his opening remarks, Balázs Orbán, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of MCC and Political Director of the Prime Minister, emphasized that the report goes beyond political messaging and provides a serious legal analysis of both the problem and the necessary responses. He argued that over the past decade the European Union has failed to stop illegal migration and that repeated EU-level initiatives have not delivered results. If the current trajectory continues, he warned, the burden on Member States will only grow. He pointed to Hungary’s daily one-million-euro fine while enforcing border protection measures and stressed that safeguarding peace and security remains a core state responsibility. In his view, both international and EU legal frameworks require fundamental rethinking, as existing humanitarian and asylum rules increasingly function as incentives for illegal migration.

The subsequent roundtable discussion deepened these themes. Rodrigo Ballester, Head of the Center for European Studies, argued that Europe cannot afford another technocratic migration pact after three decades of competence transfers that have produced unsatisfactory outcomes. He raised the fundamental question of whether migration policy is more effectively decided at national or EU level and highlighted existing opt-outs in countries such as Ireland and Denmark. Mr. Ballester also emphasized that Frontex was created to assist Member States in border protection and should remain focused on that mandate. He criticized the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, pointing to what he described as a structural bias in migration-related rulings, including the substantial increase of fines imposed on Hungary. 

Viktor Marsai, Executive Director of the Migration Research Institute, presented the core diagnosis of the report: that Europe’s migration and asylum system is structurally dysfunctional and that asylum has effectively become an entry channel rather than an exceptional protection mechanism. He noted that roughly one million asylum seekers arrive in Europe annually, fundamentally reshaping the demographic and political landscape of several Member States. 

Jerzy Kwaśniewski, President and co-founder of the Ordo Iuris Institute, linked the report’s findings to broader debates about sovereignty and legal governance. He argued that the current migration pact does not prioritize stopping illegal migration and warned against legal and institutional mechanisms that, in his assessment, shift decision-making away from democratically accountable national authorities. 

The roundtable, moderated by Yann Caspar, Researcher at the Center for European Studies, concluded with a shared message: incremental or purely technocratic adjustments will not resolve Europe’s migration challenges. Meaningful reform requires restoring legal clarity, political accountability, and decision-making competences to the level of the Member States. 

FULL REPORT AVAILABLE HERE: Taking Back Control From Brussels: The Renationalization of EU Migration and Asylum Policies