Hungarian universities stay blocked from EU grants despite appeal

The European Union has declined to lift measures excluding most Hungarian universities from receiving Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe funding, stating that Hungary “has not sufficiently addressed breaches of the principles of the rule of law”.

In December 2022, the EU blocked Hungary’s public trust foundations and the 21 universities they fund from signing new EU grant agreements, freezing them out from funding streams including Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe.

The move followed Hungary’s 2021 transfer of the assets of 11 state universities to board-led foundations, prompting fears that institutional autonomy would be compromised amid increased control by members of prime minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party.

Subsequent amendments to the country’s conflict of interest rules, the EU concluded, “still [did] not prevent top-level officials, including senior political executives from the National Assembly and Hungary’s autonomous bodies, from sitting on boards of public interest asset management foundations”.

Earlier this month, the Hungarian government requested that the funding freeze be lifted, informing the European Commission of legislative changes intended to address conflict of interest issues. “The commission, however, concluded that the legislative amendments do not adequately address the outstanding concerns on conflicts of interests in the boards of public interest trusts,” it said, adding: “The commission clearly outlined adaptations that would be needed to sufficiently remedy the situation.”

At a press conference, Balázs Hankó, Hungary’s minister for culture and innovation, said the European Commission had “deprived young Hungarian university students and researchers of their most basic EU right”. He continued: “While it is punishing Hungary with a rule of law procedure, it is punishing Hungarian universities, researchers, and university students in violation of EU legislation.”

Speaking to Times Higher Education earlier this year, Dr Hankó said the Hungarian government had attempted to meet Brussels’ conditions. He insisted that the switch to the foundation model had been driven by universities, saying, “the debate with Brussels [about these reforms] is not between Brussels and the Hungarian government, the debate is between the decision of the university senates and Brussels”.

Critics, however, have accused the government of attempting to pressure Hungary’s remaining public universities into adopting the foundation model. They have pointed, too, to Mr Orbán’s own acknowledgement that the government would appoint board members with “a national approach” while excluding anyone with an “internationalist, globalist” outlook.

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com