Minister: We won’t let Brussels take Erasmus, Horizon away

The government is committed to protecting the interests of Hungarian university students and researchers, and it will ensure that they continue to have access to European Union mobility programmes, notwithstanding the European Commission’s “unlawful decisions”, the state secretary in charge of higher education told a meeting of Hungarian university heads on Tuesday.

Balázs Hankó said the board of trustees of the Tempus Public Foundation had also made a decision on applications for the period after 30 June, 2024, and the applications of universities maintained by university foundations were also evaluated. He noted that at the end of last year the European Council decided that the Tempus Public Foundation could not make legal commitments, adding that the EC’s decision was temporary.

The foundation’s board made an interim decision on support for Erasmus+ student and staff mobility applications under which a support contract can be signed with any applicant pending the European Commission’s permission to do so by 23 November.

This means that international higher-education mobility programmes can continue uninterrupted in the case of all universities, he said, adding that the government would “not let Brussels put Hungarian researchers and students at a competitive disadvantage” and would continue to provide the resources needed for Erasmus, Horizon and European Cooperation in Science and Technology COST programme.

He also mentioned recent decisions made by Tempus on increasing the financial framework and the headcount of students and teachers for the mobility programmes, with the number of participants increasing from 10,000 in 2022 to 20,000 by 2030.

The financial resources are available at Tempus for managing the mobility programmes for the period until June 30 next year, Hanko said, adding that the foundation’s curatorium continued to evaluate and provide additional resources for the universities.