This is a big deal.

The Court of Justice of the European Union just ruled that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic violated EU law during the 2015 refugee crisis. https://sz.de/1.4865714 

The countries had refused to implement a decision by the other EU countries to distribute a total of up to 160,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece to member states.

The EU Comission will now need to call the court again to set the penalty for this. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic could face heavy fines. The duration and severity of the violations are taken into account, as well as the economic strength of the country.

But crucially, this will likely fuel rhetoric from populist authoritarians that the EU is “imposing its will” to damage these countries. Such rhetoric and their innate sense of victimhood pairs well with their attempts to project strength during the #COVID19 crisis.