Hungary has vowed to ‘protect citizens’ interests’ after a court in Brussels ruled that restrictions on foreign-funded universities were against European Union (EU) law.
Higher education reform passed in 2017 requires foreign-registered universities to provide courses in their home countries as well as in Hungary or else face penalties.
Brussels’ highest court, the European Court of Justice, ruled against the national-conservative government of Hungary on Tuesday, stating in its ruling that “the conditions introduced by Hungary to enable foreign higher education institutions to carry out their activities in its territory are incompatible with EU law.”
In imposing the new restrictions, “Hungary has failed to comply with the commitments” under the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as well as acting in contravention of the provisions of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, according to the court.
The Central European University (CEU), an institution founded and backed by globalist billionaire George Soros, was forced to relocate from Budapest to Vienna last year as a result of the legislation, which sparked outrage from the international media.
Voice of America, a liberal, U.S. state-run media outlet funded by American taxpayers, lamented at the time that Hungary’s law “would hurt academic freedom and was especially aimed at CEU, … considered a bastion of independent scholarship in the region”.
However, the institution — which admits to having a “mission” of promoting “open frontiers” and the “open society”, has been criticised for providing an ‘education’ rooted firmly in ideology rather than the open exploration of facts and ideas.
The university boasts an entire department dedicated to “gender studies”, amongst a host of programs such as “nationalism studies” and “critical race theory”-themed courses encouraging the deconstruction of traditional European cultures.
“Under such a ruling, the member state is legally forced to immediately comply with the Court’s judgment, and if it refuses, the EU Commission can seek to fine it,” the Telegraph reports.
The Hungarian government hit back at the judgement in a statement seen by Breitbart London, insisting that “double standards” with regards to higher education institutes in the country were “unacceptable”.
Promising that the government plans to “implement the judgment of the European Court of Justice in line with the interests of Hungarians”, Justice Minister Judit Varga pointed out that the legislation affects dozens of foreign higher education institutions operating in the country and yet almost all of these had no problems abiding by the new conditions.
“In the final analysis, the appropriate operation of higher education institutions guarantees confidence in a country’s education system and the reputation of its higher education system, and degrees issued as a result are the embodiment of this. There is no need for ‘mailbox universities’,” the minister stressed.
Brussels’ official for dealing with Hungary, the Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, cheered the EU court’s decision, claiming that “forcing out a university is undemocratic, it goes against European values and now it’s been ruled as illegal”.
Further, she added that the ruling “should send a warning to Viktor Orban that it’s time to step back from the brink of autocracy and reverse the Hungarian government’s undemocratic path.”
Contrary to the left-wing figure’s claim that any perceived clampdown on the extremist’s activities in the nation are “undemocratic”, the populist president swept to victory at the most recent elections with a huge two-thirds majority of seats in the Hungarian parliament following a campaign vowing to protect citizens from Soros’s plans to turn the country into a multicultural “nation of immigrants”.
One major plank of the conservative Fidesz party’s campaign targeted the influence of foreign NGOs backed by the billionaire with a package of bills dubbed the ‘Stop Soros’ laws which, would increase transparency with regards to the operations of organisations financed from abroad.
According to Reuters, Soros responded to the EU ruling by urging Brussels to “make Hungary a test case” with regards to globalist proposals to tie European financial aid to conditions of “rule of law” — an imprecise term which in practice tends to be used to promote regimes which adhere to globalist policy, and penalise those which attempt to do otherwise.
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