Hungarian universities excluded from Erasmus can sue the European Union

The Court of Justice of the European Union accepted the lawsuit brought by six foundation universities against the decision of the European Council in December 2022, he told Népssava Béla Merkely, rector of Semmelweis University. The news was also confirmed to the paper by the judicial body.

Hungarian foundation-maintained higher education institutions were prohibited from signing contracts on the payment of EU funds because the EC did not see the institutions’ autonomy and transparency as guaranteed. In practice, this means exclusion from the Erasmus+ educational exchange program and the Horizon Europe research and development program.

Last May, six universities, including Semmelweis, sued the EU Council over the decision in the EU court, which until recently examined the admissibility of the petition, but the judges declared the claim admissible two weeks ago. With this, the trial can begin, which will probably last one and a half to two years.

Merkely also told Népszava that Semmelweis lost tens of millions of euros due to the Brussels decision, including participation in a large university tender worth 14.4 million euros.

The submission of the Hungarian universities essentially questions the basis of the freeze and claims that university decision-making – including decisions about the use of EU funds – takes place independently of the foundation’s board of trustees.

At the beginning of 2023, seven ministers gave up their membership of the board of trustees in order to release the EU funds of the Erasmus and Horizon Europe programs, so far to no avail.