MEPs vote for action over Orbán’s breach of EU values

The European Parliament has voted to invoke Article 7 of the European Union treaty, triggering a procedure to determine if Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary has systematically breached the EU’s core values, including academic freedom, freedom of expression and assembly and the right to and freedom of education.

The decision on 12 September was the first time the European Parliament had initiated this procedure and only the second time the article had been invoked.

Ultimately, triggering Article 7 can lead to sanctions, including suspension of an EU member’s voting rights in the bloc, although that would require Orbán’s ally, the nationalist government in Poland, to support the measure.

The European University Association said the vote is a warning that EU members must “respect fundamental values, including those regarding university matters”.

A European Parliament report released before the vote was highly critical of the Orbán government’s record and concluded there was a “clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the Union is founded”.

As reported by University World News, the motion of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) cited as a concern the government’s introduction of stringent rules coupled with strict deadlines and severe legal consequences for foreign universities that are already established in Hungary and have been lawfully operating there for many years. It said this intervention appears “highly problematic from the standpoint of the rule of law and fundamental rights principles and guarantees”.

The motion recommended that the Hungarian authorities ensure that new rules should be applied in a “non-discriminatory and flexible manner, without jeopardising the quality and international character of education already provided by existing universities”.

It also cited the concluding observations of the UN Human Rights Committee on 5 April 2018 that there has been a “lack of a sufficient justification for the imposition of such constraints on the freedom of thought, expression and association, as well as academic freedom”.

On 7 December 2017, the European Commission decided to refer Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union on the grounds that reform of the 2011 National Tertiary Education law disproportionately restricted universities in their operations and ran counter to the right of academic freedom, the right to education and the freedom to conduct a business.

Lesley Wilson, secretary general of the European University Association, representing more than 800 institutions across Europe, has accused the Hungarian government of developing a “blueprint for curbing knowledge” and taking draconian measures to give the government extensive and largely arbitrary powers to decide what people can study and what scientific knowledge should be available.

In an article in The Guardian before the vote, she accused the Hungarian government of trying to “silence the voices within the academic community that do not support the populist and anti-migrant worldview of those in power”.

She said the attack on academia was systemic, and had included the government directly installing chancellors in Hungarian universities with extensive powers over finances and staffing.

Symptoms of the government’s approach include the recent attempt to ban gender studies without consulting the affected universities and the introduction of a law that in effect makes helping refugees to complete their studies or supporting them to secure recognition of their qualifications, or even just making research on migration public, impossible without incurring heavy taxes or risking being criminalised, as reported by University World News.

The future of the Central European University (CEU), which was established with the support of the Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist, George Soros – against whom Orbán has conducted a relentless propaganda campaign (this despite Soros having funded Orbán’s studies in the United Kingdom) – was placed in doubt by the Orbán government’s tightening of rules for the operation of foreign universities.

The CEU has taken steps to meet new requirements but is still awaiting the government’s signature of an agreement that will secure its continued presence in Budapest.

Core European value

The European University Association (EUA), which monitored the debate in the European Parliament, reported that several MEPs focused on academic freedom in the plenary debate about the report, including Petra Kammerevert, chair of the CULT (Culture and Education) Committee dealing with universities, and Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party, to which Orbán’s Fidesz party belongs.

The EUA said it was notable that Weber underlined academic freedom as a core European value in his support for the motion.

The EUA said the vote “sends a strong signal and leaves a stain on the Orbán government’s international standing. It is also a warning to all EU governments to respect fundamental values, including those regarding university matters.”

Before the vote the Hungarian government published a detailed information sheet, more than 100 pages long, rebutting the findings of the European Parliament’s report. Then Orbán himself addressed the European Parliament on 11 September.

The rebuttal statement included a denial that its legislation imposed impossible conditions on foreign higher education institutions and “does not at all jeopardise the freedom of higher education”.

The Hungarian government argued that its amendments to the National Tertiary Education law were designed to “ensure that only high quality foreign higher education institutions may operate in Hungary”.

It also pointed out that the European Commission itself has stated that it is not unprecedented that member states of the EU enact special legal requirements for institutions of higher education with headquarters in a foreign country – a clear allusion to the situation of the Central European University.

“Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands and Greece, or multiple states of Germany have much stricter rules in many aspects than the new Hungarian law,” the statement said.

Orbán, who won a landslide victory in elections in April, addressed MEPs a day before the vote, accusing them of “insulting” his country and having “already made up your minds”.

“But still I have come here today because you are not going to condemn a government but a country as well as a nation.”

He said he would not bow to EU “blackmail”.

As a result of the European Parliament’s vote, EU member states in the European Council will now have to examine the case in what will likely be a lengthy procedure. This includes the council determining whether the Hungarian government has indeed violated the values of the European Union, and then agreeing what sanctions could be appropriate.

Threats to academic freedom

The EUA said in a statement on Wednesday that it is particularly concerned about threats to academic freedom and university autonomy in Hungary.

“The EUA has been monitoring university autonomy in Europe over the past decade. While the situation is alarming in several countries, including Turkey and Russia, Hungary is the first EU member state to systematically interfere in university matters and repeatedly violate academic freedom.”

The EUA said it has 13 members in Hungary, including the Central European University.

“Recent cases, including the proposed ban on gender studies programmes, a 25% tax on external funding activities regarding migrants, prove that university autonomy and academic freedom are deteriorating.

“The Orbán administration should be mindful that these types of actions are not only damaging the country’s reputation and standing inside and out of the European Union, but have worrying implications for research and higher education.”

The EUA said Hungarian universities are internationally renowned for their quality, due to autonomy and academic freedom, which are of “key importance” not only for Hungary, but for the future of the European Higher Education and Research Area.

“Any breach has an impact on Europe as a whole, as well as on its global role in defending fundamental human and democratic rights. Therefore, any threat to core European values concerns not only the people of Hungary, but all EU citizens.”