Minister Gulyás stressed that when the agreement was reached with the European Commission, the Hungarian government acted as Brussels had requested in the case of conflict of interest rules.Continue reading
In a letter published by the conservative daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet, the Minister for Regional Development has written to Johannes Hahn and Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioners, about the Erasmus student grant case. Tibor Navracsics said that excluding Hungary from the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programs would harm the whole European community.
In his view, the Commission’s actions violate Article 13 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights by making program, research and training impossible, and by discriminating against institutions and academics. The Commission’s decision destroys decades of international professional cooperation and restricts academic freedom – read the letter sent by Tibor Navracsics to the EU Commissioners.
In the document the minister wrote: “The Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programs make a major contribution to strengthening the sense of European identity and personal European integration of participating students, teachers and researchers.”
Photo: Facebook Tibor Navracsics
The Minister added that the failure to reconsider the ban will cause irreversible damage not only to the Hungarian people who are excluded from the academic program, but also to the entire European community. Tibor Navracsics said he was shocked to see that Hungarian bodies involved in EU programs had received unfair and unfounded letters.
The minister said that the office deciding on the exclusion from the program was interpreting the European Council decision beyond its wording. In Mr Navracsics’ view, the implementing decision does not prohibit applications to the two program mentioned above.
In order to prevent harm to students and teachers, I respectfully request that misunderstandings are clarified as a matter of urgency, so that in the future no unjustified and illegal decisions are taken by the EU institutions and that measures already adopted and in force are amended without delay,
the minister asked the commissioners.
Mr Navracsics also listed the results that demonstrate the success of the model change. He said that the number of international citations for model-switching institutions has increased by 18% compared to 2020. Since 2020, more and more students have been admitted to higher education, while the number of graduates has remained constant. The number of foreign students has increased by 65 percent compared to 2013, with 40,000 more students enrolled, and Hungarian state funding for higher education has doubled to double the 2020 level in 2022 and 2023.
Featured Photo: Facebook European Commission
