European Commission Suspends Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe Funding for Some Hungarian Institutions
EU has banned new contracts with some Hungarian public trust foundations. Many Hungarian universities will lose funding.
The European Commission decided no new legal commitments may be entered into with selected Hungarian public trust foundations. This measure is grounded in the EU rule of law conditionality mechanism officially triggered by the European Commission last April. The Commission found that Hungary failed to implement necessary remedial measures adequately and subsequently decided to freeze EU funding for Hungary. The ban affects 21 Hungarian universities — they will not be able to receive new grants from the educational programme Erasmus+ or Horizon, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. These universities are run by public trust foundations named in the decision.
Ongoing projects and mobilities will not be affected as the suspension of cooperation with Hungarian subjects only affects agreements signed after December 15.
How will this decision affect Erasmus+ projects?
Outcoming and incoming student and staff mobilities and strategic partnerships funded in 2020, 2021 or 2022 calls are not affected and are allowed to continue.
As for the new 2023 call with the submission of the application deadlines in February and March of this year, the involvement of some Hungarian universities will be limited. Study stays abroad will remain unaffected for Czech students as Hungarian institutions are not involved in the contractual relationship. However, this decision will affect study stays abroad for Hungarian students as well as cooperation with Hungarian institutions.
Especially where cooperation among organisations and institutions (KA2) is concerned, we recommend all institutions currently preparing for project application in the 2023 Call review the conditions for participation by Hungarian universities and possibly involve them as additional partners once the minimum of three partners from three other countries has been met.
How long will this suspension last?
Based on information from the European Commission, we are able to confirm that the measures affecting both programmes are temporary. The Commission plans to release further instructions to National Agencies administering the Erasmus+ programme in the next few days. As soon as the situation changes, we will inform the public, applicants and current Erasmus+ grant recipients.
Around 100 Hungarian university students and another 100 Hungarian academics come to Czechia every year for their Erasmus+ study stay. Similar numbers of Czech students and university staff head to Hungary every year. Hungarian universities are also important partners for their Czech counterparts when it comes to long-term cooperation. Some of them are also members of the European University Alliance along with Czech universities.