Hungary will soon be deprived of a share of its EU funds for refusing to pay a fine imposed in a blow to Viktor Orban's regime. The European Commission has triggered a special procedure to deduct the €200million fine that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has imposed on Hungary over the country's long-standing restrictions on the right to

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The European Commission must reimburse Hungary's huge costs of protecting the European Union's external border from illegal migration, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio on Friday.

The European Union has begun the process of clawing back hundreds of millions of euros in funds meant to go Hungary.

Brussels has said it will deduct €200mn from EU budget payments to Hungary, increasing tensions with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government over its approach to immigration. The move by the EU’s top court comes a day after Budapest missed a deadline to pay a fine of the same value for breaking EU asylum laws.

The European Union said it will deduct €200 million ($222 million) from its next payments to Hungary after the country failed to pay a fine imposed for its asylum policies before the expiration of a Tuesday deadline.