Hungary concedes to the EU: ministers resign from board seats of uni foundations

Ministers will step back from boards of asset management foundations of universities from February 15, and the government expects lesser government officials to do the same, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office told a regular press conference on Thursday.

Justice Minister Judit Varga, Energy Minister Csaba Lantos, Finance Minister Mihály Varga, Agriculture Minister István Nagy, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Regional Development Minister Tibor Navracsics have resigned from seats on the boards of universities which participated in a government-led reform in the past years. The European Union had earlier raised concerns of corruption regarding the foundations.

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The Hungarian government has always been ready to meet the EU halfway in “rational compromise”, Gergely Gulyás said. The government “has even supported requests without any legal basis if they did not harm the country’s interests,” he said.

“The European Commission should only be allowed to pose us demands based on community law, but we are way past that,” he said.

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Source: MTI