Amidst all the EU worries about “Brexit Contagion” comes ironic, self-imposed contagion news from Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s foreign minister.

Asselborn says “Hungary Should Be Ejected From EU“.

Actually that’s impossible. And after diving into ECB analysis of EU legal documents, I wonder if the EU can enforce much of anything!

First let’s take a look at the expulsion threat bluff.

Expulsion Threat Bluff

Budapest’s refusal to accept the arrival of refugees had “massively violated” the EU’s fundamental values, said Jean Asselborn, who helped force through a plan to share out asylum seekers across the bloc.

As a result, Hungary “should be excluded temporarily or if need be forever from the EU”, Mr Asselborn said, according to the German newspaper, Welt.

His remarks on Tuesday mark the first time an EU foreign minister has called for another member state to be expelled from the bloc. They will also cast a shadow over efforts by EU leaders to map out a common future for the union, post-Brexit, at a summit in Bratislava on Friday.

On Tuesday, Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s foreign minister, hit back. In an email released to the press agency MTI he said Mr Asselborn was “an intellectual lightweight” who “lives a sermonising, pompous and frustrated life?… just a few kilometres from Brussels.”

“The comments are strange, coming from Luxembourg, the home of ‘tax optimisation’ and Jean-Claude Juncker [EU Commission president], who also talks about burden-sharing,” Mr Szijjarto said. “But we all know that simply means making Hungary bear the burden of others’ mistakes. The Hungarian government refuses — the Hungarian people will give their opinion [in a planned referendum] on October 2.”

Mr Szijjarto said his Luxembourg counterpart was “a classic nihilist” who “works tirelessly on destroying European security and culture”.

ECB Paper on Withdrawal and Expulsion from the EU and EMU

Please consider snips from the ECB working paper #10 on Withdrawal and Expulsion from the EU and EMU.