The European Commission is not telling the truth about the Erasmus issue, the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (KIM) announced.
"Brussels is lying, since today is exactly one year since we sent them the regulatory proposal in order to advance the negotiations (November 13, 2023). He is lying, since since then we have discussed the proposal several times in person," the ministry wrote in its announcement, which also highlighted that KIM had organized several personal meetings.
It was recalled: at the informal meeting of the ministers of education held between February 29 and March 1, Balázs Hankó - then still as state secretary - indicated that the negotiations and the bilateral negotiations regarding the Erasmus case with Commissioner Iliana Ivanova were not progressing, and he requested the continuation of the negotiations.
On May 13, during the meeting of the Education, Youth, Culture and Sports Council (OIKST), Balázs Hankó consulted with the vice-chairman of the committee, Margaritis Schinas, who emphasized that he could not report any progress regarding the Erasmus matter.
On September 19, Balázs Hankó – now as Minister responsible for culture and innovation – held a meeting with Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Policy, and Nicolas Schmit, Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights, regarding the issue of academic freedom, leaving aside the public interest trust also on the issue of the exclusion of Hungarian universities maintained by foundations from EU programs.
The head of the ministry indicated at the time that the draft law would be launched in the fall session, and Hungary trusts that the European Commission will finally be ready to formulate a position so that the issue can be closed during the fall, KIM explained.
They touched on the fact that on October 18, Stéphanie Riso, the European Commission's director general for the budget, was sent the bill submitted to the Parliament by the Ministry of European Union Affairs.
On October 25, Minister Balázs Hankó met with Iliana Ivanova, the EU Commissioner for Education and Research's chief of staff, Markus Schulte, and Mario Nava, the head of the department responsible for employment and social affairs of the European Commission. related bill - they wrote.
They added: it was also announced during the negotiations that the draft law does not contain anything other than what the Hungarian government already sent to the European Commission almost a year ago, in November 2023, regarding, among other things, the conflict of interest of the members of the board of trustees and the one-year, so-called cooling-off period, as well as the that the mandate of the board members be determined twice in a six-year period.
KIM emphasized: the government has done everything in the past year to advance the negotiations and settle the case of Hungarian students, teachers, and researchers, while the European Commission was silent, took time, looked for people to evade the personal negotiations, they had no professional arguments .
According to them, the EU body is already feeling the embarrassment of the delay, "but it doesn't know how to justify it, but it wants to maintain political blackmail and discrimination of Hungarian students, so it claims blatant lies".
MTI
Cover photo: Balázs Hankó, minister responsible for culture and innovation
Source: MTI/Péter Lakatos
