Opposition Jobbik-Conservatives party initiates special parliament session over EU Erasmus financing

The opposition Jobbik-Conservatives party has initiated convening a special session of parliament over the issue of financing for the EU’s Erasmus scholarship scheme, the party said on Monday.

The deadline for the government to sign “the financial commitments” towards the programme “is approaching fast” and unless progress is made quickly, several Hungarian universities “forced by the government into a new operational model” will be barred from accessing EU funding worth hundreds of millions of euros, the party said in a statement.

An agreement should be signed with Brussels this month, the party said, citing however an EU spokesman as saying that “no substantial steps” had been taken that could make one optimistic.

“It will be too late to address the changes requested by the EU [for unfreezing funding] only at the autumn session of parliament,” Jobbik said and called for “preventing the Orbán government could drive Hungarian higher education out of the EU“.

Source: MTI