Thousands of Hungarian students will probably lose access to the European Union’s Erasmus+ scholarship program after the government failed to address concerns about the country’s universities, a top EU official said.
(Bloomberg) — Thousands of Hungarian students will probably lose access to the European Union’s Erasmus+ scholarship program after the government failed to address concerns about the country’s universities, a top EU official said.
The EU suspended 21 universities from the program, which funds scholarships for EU students to study in other countries, in January. The bloc cited risks of corruption and conflict of interest after the schools were put under the management of public foundations set up by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration and run by ministers from his ruling Fidesz party.
The government missed a May deadline to address the EU’s concerns, EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said in an interview. Now it’s probably too late to resolve the issue for the school year starting in September, meaning Hungary won’t get new funds.
“I am rather doubtful that we can save the scholarships for the winter semester because honestly, if we agree on something, then it has to be implemented,” Hahn told Bloomberg News last week on the margins of a meeting in Salzburg, Austria.
The Erasmus decision represents one of the most visible consequences for Hungary in its dispute with the EU, which has repeatedly warned Orban’s government that it can lose funding because it isn’t meeting the bloc’s standards on tackling corruption and upholding the rule of law.
It’s part of a wider dispute with the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, which has frozen as much as €32 billion ($35 billion) in assistance earmarked for the country of 9.7 million.
As many as 13,000 Hungarian students take part in Erasmus+ each year. More than two-thirds study at the universities now managed by the public trusts, meaning more than 8,000 may not be able to study abroad if the issue isn’t resolved, according to Marcell Budai, a spokesperson for HOOK, Hungary’s largest student organization.
“The usual procedure would have been to have an agreement and everything sealed by the end of May, the beginning of June, because the assessment and confirmation period is the end of June, the beginning of July,” Hahn said.
Hahn’s comments contrast with statements made by Hungarian officials. Most recently, Gergely Gulyas, the minister for the prime minister’s office, said there was a chance that a deal could be reached by the end of October. He has called the blocking of Erasmus funds “unacceptable.”
Previously, the Hungarian government said that it could change its laws so that cabinet ministers aren’t allowed to serve on the boards of the public trusts that manage the universities, but such changes haven’t taken place.
“It is not a miracle to solve this issue,” Hahn said. “We have informed them several times what our expectations are. Nothing has changed.”
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