Hungary's return to Erasmus+ rejected
Fri Jan 19 14:28:20 CET 2024
MEPs rejected the reinstatement of 30 Hungarian institutions, including 21 universities, in the Erasmus+ programme, saying that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán must first implement the necessary reforms to dispel doubts about university autonomy and the rule of law.
Context
In December 2022, participation in Erasmus+ student and academic mobility was suspended by some Hungarian institutions due to the fact that university structures have been gradually reorganized over the past few years by government decree so that their administration has been transferred to public trust foundations and a large part of the control has been placed in the hands of boards of trustees composed of members who were originally personally selected by the government or were themselves members of the government.
These institutions are:
- Budapest University of Economics
- University of Dunaújváros
- University of Debrecen
- Corvinus University of Budapest
- Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences
- Hungarian University of Dance
- University of Veterinary Science
- Moholy-Nagy University of Arts
- Semmelweis University
- János Neumann University
- University of Nyíregyháza
- Pannon University
- Óbuda University
- University of Sopron
- István Széchenyi University
- University of Szeged
- University of Theatre and Film Arts
- Hungarian University of Physical Education and Sports Sciences
- Tokaj-Hegyalja University
- University of Miskolc
- University of Pécs
These institutions have cooperation agreements until mid-2024, so the effect of this ban is yet to come.
Ban on participation in Erasmus+ in the context of frozen European funds
MEPs condemned by 345 votes for and 104 votes against Hungary's "systematic discriminatory practices against academia, journalists, political parties and civil society in the allocation of funds" in Hungary.
The resolution also includes explicit concerns about Hungary's competence to hold the Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2024. (The full press release, including a recording of the hearing, is available here.)
In addition to the suspension of participation in the Erasmus+ programme, part of the cohesion funds is also being blocked. In December 2023, while the European Commission considered that the changes made to the Hungarian judicial system in May 2023 were sufficient to release €10.2 billion from frozen funds, a further €21 billion remains blocked, part of them under the 2021 "conditionality mechanism" in an effort to curb breaches of the rule of law between Member States. On this issue, too, MEPs expressed regret that the EC had released part of the funds despite insufficient reform efforts.
Protecting Academic Freedom
The European Parliament's report also called on the European Commission to swiftly adopt a legally binding document on minimum conditions for academic freedom on the basis of decisions by European courts and the Court of Justice of the EU.
Hungary's academic freedom rating has been steadily declining. An example is the case of Dr. Zoltán Adám, who was dismissed from his position as an associate professor of economics at Corvin University in November 2023 for refusing to examine a student who did not meet the necessary requirements and did not bow to pressure from the student's family, who are stakeholders of the energy giant MOL, whose chairman, Zsolt Hernádi, heads the foundation that has been overseeing Corvinus University since 2019.
As a testament to the influence of the foundation and government officials on the university, Dr. Adám filed a complaint with the ethics committee about the non-standard procedures and the admission of the student to the exam, which condemned the actions of the three university leaders (the rector even later resigned). However, the commission's decision was later overturned by the university's board of trustees. The investigation of this matter subsequently led to Ádám's dismissal for alleged "uncooperative behavior".
Reaction of the Hungarian government
This week, the Hungarian government launched its own domestic alternative to the Erasmus+ the HU-rizont programme and an alternative to student mobility called the Pannonia Programme. HU-rizont will have a budget of just over €20 million (HUF 8 billion) to support Hungarian researchers. A further €15 million (HUF 6 billion) has been earmarked this year to support international researchers working in Hungary. The government has also promised to continue supporting Hungarian universities that do not have access to funding from Horizon Europe. However, these programmes cannot be a sufficient alternative, nor can they be an alternative independent one linked to the decision-making of the Hungarian government and will not be able to stop the decline of Hungarian science.
Sources:
Rule of law conditionality regulation - European Commission (europa.eu)
Judicial independence and EU funding for Hungary (europa.eu)
Hungary: academic freedom 2022 | Statista
Hungary Continues Attacks on Academic Freedom | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)
Statement in Support of Zoltán Ádám | CEU Democracy Institute
Photo: pixabay