Hungary

French MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield has a ‘creative’ answer to the current stalemate, saying rule of law concerns could be circumvented by handing the management of EU research funding to an independent body

The EU ban on some Hungarian institutes receiving new Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe funding is now having a knock-on effect on counterparts that are not on the banned list. They are calling for the Commission to make it clear they are exempt

The appeals add another layer of complication to an ongoing dispute between Brussels and Budapest over the autonomy of many of Hungary’s higher education institutions

A fact-finding trip to Budapest has left MEPs from across the political spectrum uneasy. Their impressions of deteriorating academic freedom and self-censorship are at odds with how government representatives portrayed things

A Budapest university that is not affected by the EU block on funds has received emails from worried grant partners after an unclear message was posted on the EU’s funding portal

It provides a stop gap, but some researchers in Hungary have expressed concerns to Science|Business that this substitute fund is papering over cracks rather than solving underlying rule of law issues

As the EU is mulls over concessions the Hungarian government has made in a bid to unfreeze Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ funding to 21 universities, researchers and academics in the country say more fundamental change is needed

Seven ministers are due to step down from positions on public trust foundations, but whether this will allay EU rule of law concerns is not yet clear

Hungarian minister Tibor Navracsics says the government is open to changing the structure of public trust foundations to appease EU rule of law concerns

Students and researchers are increasingly concerned about the impact of universities in Hungary being locked out of Horizon Europe and Erasmus programmes over rule of law concerns