An international university threatens to leave Budapest

If the Hungarian government can not guarantee that the University of Central Europe (CEU) will remain in Budapest before December 1, the university will set up in Vienna in 2019. [19659002] That's what Michael Ignatieff, rector of the International University, announced on Thursday. known. "We are developing a country that has been home to our country for 26 years," Ignatieff said at a press conference in Budapest.

The English-speaking CEU, active in Hungary since 1991 and charged with "preparing future leaders for the construction of open and democratic societies", has been in uncertainty since the beginning of 2017.

The Hungarian government has then announced Prime Minister Viktor Orbán received a new law on education that directly threatened the continuity of the university. According to the university, this law was a "UEC law" designed to meet her. In a reaction, the Hungarian government said Thursday that the threat of a move to Vienna was a "political game", which he did not want to have anything to do.

Its founder, the American-Hungarian billionaire philanthropist George Soros, is the target of right-wing nationalists in Europe and the United States. This week, an explosive was discovered near his home in the New York area. In Hungary, Soros donates to the CEU and organizations working for democracy, human rights and corruption.

See also: Explosively found at the philantropist George Soros

American diploma

which awards both Hungarian and American diplomas, has, in his own words, satisfied all the requirements of the new law on education. One of these requirements is the creation of an American campus in the state of New York. But the Hungarian government still holds an agreement with the state of New York, essential to guarantee the accreditation of the university.

If this agreement does not come, the university will transfer all degree programs to a US-based campus in Vienna, which will open in September 2019. The university wishes that some degree programs lead to a specific Hungarian diploma. drive to Budapest. Students who have started their training in Budapest can finish it here.

Pressure on the EPP fraction increases

The CEU's ultimatum increases pressure on the Christian Democratic People's Party of Europe (EPP), the largest group in the European Parliament. Previously, EPP politicians had referred to the "red line" of university continuity and the undisturbed work of Hungarian non-governmental organizations in order to preserve the increasingly unruly faction of Fidesz, Orbán.

"This is the scientific freedom, a fundamental principle," said Thursday morning the head of the EPP Group, Manfred Weber, candidate for the succession of Juncker at the head of the European Commission . "I can not explain to anyone in the EU why the CEU has such problems in Hungary."

But the question remains, the red lines of the EPP, and whether Orbán will consider the criticism.

Article 7

The situation of the CEU is one of the reasons why the European Parliament voted in September the activation of a so-called Article 7 procedure against the Hungary. This procedure may lead to Hungary losing its right to vote in the European Council of Heads of Government. But support for Orbán with allies like the Polish government makes this unlikely. The European Commission has dragged the Hungarian government to the European Court because of the "EU law".