Erasmus program in Hungary saved? Unexpected help from the European Parliament

In Hungary, there are foundation-run and state-run universities. The former ones will not be able to partake in the Erasmus program from this year, provided there is no agreement between the European Commission and the Hungarian government. Among others, the decision concerns Budapest Corvinus University, the University of Debrecen, the University of Szeged, and the Semmelweis University. These institutions are very popular among foreign students.

We collected here the 21 foundation-run universities in Hungary that can be excluded from the Erasmus program. Some of them are extremely popular both among Hungarian and foreign students. For example, at Semmelweis University or the universities of Debrecen and Szeged, thousands of foreign students study to become doctors and engineers. The exclusion of those 21 universities from the European Union’s greatest student exchange program would have a devastating effect on Hungarian higher education.

The Hungarian government and the European Commission have been negotiating about the Erasmus program for more than a year. The Hungarian government decided to recall government and parliament members from the boards of the foundation-run universities. But, for example, mayors remained members, and the talks did not progress since the summer of 2023.

The European Parliament will rescue Erasmus in Hungary?

Now, help may come from the European Parliament, which has been hostile towards Hungary on many issues. For example, the MEPs’ majority regularly would like to start new rule-of-law measures against Hungary.

The European People’s Party (Fidesz’s former European party) would like to amend a submitted document to enable Hungarian students to take part in the Erasmus and Horizon (the latter is a teacher support program) programs, portfolio.hu wrote.

The EP’s Culture and Education Committee (CULT) gave the green light with the votes of the EPP, ID, ECR and non-aligned Fidesz members. The text asks the European Commission to negotiate with Hungary to help Hungarian students and teachers access the education funds in the Erasmus program.

S&D criticised the manoeuvre and said the EPP began to move to the right before the European parliamentary elections this June. He added that Manfred Weber, the EPP’s leader, protects Orbán, contradicting the interests of his parliamentary group. Orbán was one of the European leaders who successfully prevented Weber from becoming the European Commission’s leader in 2019.

Opposition mayor also helping?

Meanwhile, Tibor Navracsics, the Minister of Regional Development of Hungary, was in Miskolc. The University of Miskolc is also a foundation-run university, but the city’s opposition mayor, Pál Veres, is on the board.

Therefore, Navracsics asked Veres to use his Brussels contacts to prove that foundation-run universities do not involve political discrimination. Mr Veres promised to raise his voice in Brussels on the issue.

Hu-rizont: help or waste of money?

The aforementioned 21 universities will lose membership in the European Union’s Horizon scheme. That is a support program for teachers, for which even the United Kingdom pays extra contribution to remain part. The Hungarian government decided to create a Hungarian scheme to replace that one. Its name is the Hu-rizont programme, and we wrote about it in detail HERE.

The chairman of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), Tamás Freund, said that the newly-created scheme is only for mitigating the damage done by Hungary’s exclusion from the Horizon programme. Former MTA head József Pálinkás, who ran for the opposition PM candidacy in 2022, slammed Hu-rizont. He said it is a “senseless waste of money”. Mr Pálinkás added that a German professor would not include a Hungarian colleague in a scientific project because of the uncertainties concerning the Hungarian universities. A Polish or Romanian colleague will join the project instead, Népszava wrote.

Biggest opposition party calls for excluding government politicians from foundations overseeing universities (UPDATE)

All politicians of the ruling parties should be excluded from the foundations that oversee universities in Hungary, while the assets of those universities should again be put under state control, the spokesman of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said on Tuesday. Balázs Barkóczi reacted to a government announcement of the launch of a programme aimed to boost international research cooperation involving Hungarian universities dubbed HU-rizont.

Barkóczi noted that Hungarian students could not participate in the Erasmus exchange and researchers in the EU’s Horizon programme “because the government has captured universities and privatised them as foundations”.

Launching HU-rizont, “a DIY scheme to replace Horizon” reflects that “the government has accepted that Hungary has been left out of European education and research cooperation programmes,” Barkóczi said.

MEPs of DK will on Tuesday support a position in the European Parliament aimed at calling on the Hungarian government “to abide with the rule of law and implement reforms facilitating Hungary’s participation in the Horizon and Erasmus programmes,” Barkóczi said.

‘Dollar left’ seeking to block Hungarian university students’ study opportunities?

Fidesz MEP Tamas Deutsch said on Tuesday that “Hungarian MEPs of Momentum linked to the dollar left are working to prevent Hungarian university students, researchers and professors from participating in EU student programmes”.

In a video, Deutsch noted that the plenary session of the European Parliament adopted a proposal on the EU’s Erasmus programme that included “an amendment with a shocking content” submitted prior to the vote by Momentum MEPs Katalin Cseh and Anna Donath. “They initiated that Hungarian students should not have access to the EU’s education and scientific programmes,” he said, adding that “Hungarian students and professors have the right to know this”.

The plenary session adopted a report about the implementation of the Erasmus+ 2021-2027 programme and related challenges. It also adopted an amendment submitted by a group of Renew Europe MEPs including Donath, Cseh and France’s Laurence Farreng and Germany’s Moritz Korner. The amendment calls on the Hungarian government to observe the rule of law and basic EU values and to implement reforms required for Hungarian participation in the Erasmus+ schemes.

The plenary however voted against another amendment submitted by MEPs of Fidesz, the allied ruling Christian Democrats and Romania’s ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party. The amendment called for “fair, lawful and transparent procedures agreed on with the European Commission that allow Hungarian students, teachers and researchers to fully benefit from the Erasmus+ programme”.

In their statement, the Fidesz MEPs said that “initiated by the dollar left’s MEPs, the EP continues its political blackmail by unlawfully withholding EU funds Hungarian students, researchers and professors are entitled to”.

Read also:

• Hungarian youth organisation may solve the Erasmus crisis Orbán cannot – Read more HERE
• After the EU ban: what will happen with the Erasmus program in Hungary? – Details in THIS article