A European Parliament committee voted against readmitting dozens of Hungarian universities to the Erasmus programme, Hungarian media reported on Thursday.
The European Parliament “has once again let down Hungarian students and supported the European Commission in its decision to make the return to the Erasmus+ programme a matter of political blackmail,” Anna Maria Vicsék, a member of the European Parliament from the Fidesz-Christian Democrats (KDNP) party, said in Brussels.
“The European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) voted on a report on European University Alliances on Tuesday,” Vicsék said. “The aim was to strengthen co-operation… but the left-wing majority used it to attack Hungary again.”
“The committee rejected her amendment calling on the EC to “stop the illegal and discriminatory practice of excluding Hungarian students from the Erasmus+ programme,” Vicsék said.
Vicsék also highlighted other “worrying” elements of the report. It calls for a “European degree” which, she said, would call into question the sovereignty of member states and “make participation conditional on ideological requirements.”
Higher education institutions in candidate countries could only join the initiative if they “complied with certain Brussels values,” she said. “At the same time, higher education for minorities would remain completely invisible. This is not about academic freedom, but about centralisation. That is why I did not support the adoption of the report.”
