European Parliament committee votes against the readmission of dozens of Hungarian universities into the Erasmus program

The European Parliament “has once again abandoned Hungarian university students and supported the European Commission in making the return to the Erasmus+ programme subject to political blackmail,” Annamária Vicsek, an MEP of the Fidesz-Christian Democrats (KDNP), said in Brussels on Tuesday.

The EP Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) voted on a report on European University Alliances on Tuesday, Vicsek said. “The aim would have been to strengthen cooperation … but the leftist majority used it to attack Hungary again.” The committee rejected her amendment proposal calling on the EC to “stop the unlawful and discriminative practice of excluding Hungarian university students from the Erasmus+ programme,” Vicsek said.

European Parliament committee Hungarian universities Erasmus — Photo: FB/Annamária Vicsek Fidesz MEP

Vicsek also highlighted other “concerning” elements of the report. It calls for a “European degree”, which she said would question member states’ sovereignty and “would make participation conditional on ideological requirements”.

Higher education institutes of membership candidates could only join the initiative if they “complied with certain values of Brussels”, she said. “Meanwhile, the higher education for minorities would remain fully invisible.” “This is not about academic freedom but of centralisation. That is why I didn’t support accepting the report,” Vicsek said.

Read also:

Seemingly no chance that dozens of Hungarians universities can rejoin the Erasmus, Horizon programs