Hungarian students are being exploited by European institutions to exert pressure on the Hungarian government, Andrea Bocskor, Member of the European Parliament for the conservative Hungarian governing party, Fidesz, told The European Conservative. Her statement comes after Hungarian national student unions presented their petition to the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions (PETI) on Wednesday, September 20th, urging the European Commission not to let young people become victims of the debate between the European Union and a member state government.
The European Commission announced last December that the European Union’s Erasmus grant funding program, which allows students to study abroad at partner institutions, would no longer be made available to 21 Hungarian universities. Additionally, the aforementioned universities would no longer be eligible to receive funding for the EU’s Horizon Europe research exchange programs. The reason—or so Brussels claimed—was that the universities operate as public trust foundations or are maintained by such foundations, and “their operating model did not ensure the transparent management of EU funds, as neither public procurement nor conflict of interest rules applied to them.” Another problem cited by the European Commission was that in many universities, government politicians were on the board of trustees.
However, the government in Budapest sees the decision as a clear escalation of its political dispute with Brussels. European institutions have criticised the Viktor Orbán-led government—ever since it came to power in 2010—for eroding the rule of law and democracy in Hungary, but Budapest has argued that the real reason for these attacks is political because of the conservative government’s stance on issues such as migration, the transgender debate, and the war in Ukraine.
Hungarian academics and students alike slammed the move and claimed that outside pressure from the government on their operations did not exist. The rectors of the 21 Hungarian universities affected wrote a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging her to reverse the decision. Meanwhile, the politicians concerned all resigned from their positions on the boards of trustees in accordance with the wishes of Brussels.
“Since the procedure started (before the sanction has even begun being enforced), research projects have been interrupted, partnerships cancelled, and thousands of students who dreamed of education elsewhere in Europe know they will remain at home,” former EU official Rodrigo Ballester recently wrote in a commentary for The European Conservative. He added:
At the same time, citizens from Turkey, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, and Norway will fully benefit from Erasmus, and so will nationals from triple AAA democracies like Iran, Venezuela, and China under Erasmus Mundus. And why not? For them, Erasmus will remain the EU’s most popular initiative, one of the few that speaks to citizens, Europe’s best brand, and one of its best tools of soft power. But not for Hungarians.
In his presentation on Wednesday, Ádám Turi, Vice President of the Nemzeti Ifjúsági Tanács, a Hungarian youth umbrella organisation, said that the decision of the EU affects 62% of all students in Hungary; therefore, more than 180,000 students will be excluded from Erasmus programmes as of September next year. “We are saddened by the fact that political debates take a toll on innocent students’ fates,” he said, stating that the European Students’ Union also shares their concerns.
At the hearing, the European Commission’s law expert Alessandro Nucara stated their aim was not to impose sanctions but to safeguard the EU budget against breaches of the rule of law in Hungary. However, the measures can be lifted if Hungary “remedies the situation.”
Andrea Bocskor told The European Conservative that these are just excuses:
The EU is hypocritical because it is not taking into account the situation of the students. Their argument that the budget needs to be protected is laughable. How can students be endangering EU funds?
Loránt Vincze, a conservative ethnic Hungarian MEP from Romania, said at the hearing that the exclusion of Hungarians from Erasmus was not just discriminatory but also a counterproductive move because the Commission is supposed to be promoting European values but instead is fostering disillusionment with the EU itself. He also pointed to the fact that the Hungarian public trust foundations had been modelled on other universities in other member states, which had sitting politicians on their board of trustees, yet the European Commission didn’t punish them.
Hungarian Minister of Regional Development Tibor Navracsics recently told journalists that negotiations with Brussels are ongoing and hopefully an agreement can be reached by the end of November, in which case Erasmus funds will continue to be paid from the second half of 2024.
Though the European Parliament’s PETI committee does not have a say on discussions between the European Commission and the Hungarian government, it tries to act “as a bridge between Europeans and the EU institutions.” Andrea Bocskor says it is a good sign that all political groups within the committee noted the importance of Hungarian students being able to take part in Erasmus. The petition will therefore remain open and will be discussed at a later hearing, depending on how talks progress between Brussels and Budapest. The chairman of the committee called on the European Commission to take action to advance the cause of Hungarian students.
