Tibor Navracsics, Minister of Regional Development, said university students in Hungary will be able to apply for Erasmus scholarships for the autumn semester in the same way as before.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, after meeting EU commissioners Elisa Ferreira, Johannes Hahn and Mariya Gabriel, Minister Navracsics said that he had asked the European Commission to send a letter to the Tempus Public Foundation, which coordinates international mobility applications, reassuring university students and the authorities of EU member states that participation in the Eurasmus+ program would go ahead. An agreement can be reached on this issue by the summer, he said, adding that financing of the Horizon Europe and Eurasmus+ programs would continue even after 2024. Navracsics said that a letter of clarification had already been received from the EC explaining to the consortium partners and Hungarian universities that applications and participation in the Horizon Europe programme could continue uninterrupted. “If no agreement is reached, that would only cause a problem in the future,” he said. Minister Navracsics said regulations under Hungary’s new model of public foundations managing several universities were also discussed, and he said it was important to clarify how soon those universities may be included in the Erasmus and Horizon Europe programs. “We are now sending a consultative proposal to Brussels,” he said. Minister Navracsics said that a dispute with the European Commission concerned the issue of conflict-of-interest regulations in respect of the membership of the boards managing universities under the new model. “So far we have not managed to fully establish which positions are incompatible with board membership,” he added.