Orbán ‘accepts’ Bavarian offer on CEU, says Bavarian minister

Budapest, 2019. február 27. Orbán Viktor miniszterelnök beszédet mond a Magyar Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara gazdasági évnyitóján a budapesti New York Palace szállodában 2019. február 27-én. MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has accepted the Bavarian provincial government’s offer concerning scientific cooperation with the Central European University, Florian Herrmann, the Bavarian minister of state for EU and media affairs told Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.

According to the proposal, the Munich Technical University (TUM) would fund two faculties on democracy and governance at CEU.

CEU was barred from issuing American degrees in Hungary last year, as the government said it had failed to comply with a law amendment requiring educational activity in the university’s country of origin.

TUM would co-fund a third faculty which would operate as a foundation, Herrmann said.

Herrmann said

Orbán had “guaranteed” that the CEU would be allowed to continue its research and educational work in Budapest.

Herrmann said he believed the gesture on the part of the Hungarian prime minister was a clear sign that he wanted to dampen the controversy surrounding his Fidesz party within the European Peoples’ Party (EPP).