Slovenian MEP Thinks Hungarian Students Were Unjustly Excluded from Erasmus+

In an interview for the news portal nova24tv, MEP and member of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) Dr. Milan Zver spoke about the exclusion of Hungarian students from the Erasmus+ program. Dr. Zver, as the European Parliament’s permanent rapporteur for Erasmus+ since 2014, is well positioned to form an opinion about the political processes that had lead to the decision to discriminate against young Hungarian citizens.

Speaking about the Erasmus education program, Dr. Zver thinks that it is fundamentally a very good one, being the best known and most successful such initiative within the EU. Asked about the European Commission’s decision to exclude Hungarian students from the program on the basis of concerns about the governance of Hungarian universities, Dr. Zver replied by saying that

the exclusion of Hungarian students from Erasmus+ was certainly one of the EU’s more high-profile mistakes.

In preparing the last implementation report, I did everything in my power to help unblock Erasmus+ for Hungarian students”.

The Slovenian MEP also accused the Commission of having spent the last few years abusing the rules relating to the rule of law to punish European governments that are to the right of the political center, while turning its back to abuses of left-wing governments, such as Malta and the former Slovak government. He thinks that one still cannot find any justification for the EC’s targeting of students and young people from the EU member state of Hungary.

He also stated that even in the case of autocratic Turkey and totalitarian Russia, the EC tolerates cooperation, because it does not want to alienate young people from these countries completely from the EU. In the case of Hungary, however,

the EC is punishing the Orbán Government with sanctions that have affected young people in particular, which is absolutely unacceptable”.

In his view, “political battles should not be fought on the backs of young people”.

Migration

Dr. Zver has also remarked about what he called “some crazy proposals from the left of the EP”, such as the proposal to give illegal migrants permits to stay in the EU, just because they somehow managed to get involved in a project under the Erasmus+ program.

He stated that

NGOs are involved in the smuggling of migrants, and these organizations receive part of their funding from both the EU and the member states.

He has also asked the EC for a list of NGOs that have received European funding and are involved in operations that bring irregular migrants into the EU. The implementation of some of the European Council’s decisions – on the establishment of reception centers outside Europe, on the rigorous return of irregular migrants, and on the closure of the EU’s external land and sea borders to irregular migrants – would put an immediate stop to irregular migration to Europe, thinks Dr. Zver.

The Slovenian MEP also claimed that without making proper checks the EU gives too much money to some countries which, in return, humiliate the EU by breaching agreements on migration. Tunisia is a case in point, he said. “If there is no respect for the rules, there is no money”.

Via Nova 24 TV; Featured Image: Facebook, Earsmus+