The leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group called on leaders of EU member states to put pressure on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán over the issue at the Brussels summit starting on Thursday. The agreement is ready to be signed, Verhofstadt insisted.

“The Central European University has done all it can to comply with an invasive new Hungarian Higher Education Law; New York State has negotiated an agreement with the Hungarian government which would allow the CEU to provide for education also in the US, as required by Prime Minister Orbán’s new law,” the statement said.

It is time for Budapest’s Central European University (CEU) to “make up its mind about what it wants done” in connection with Hungary’s higher education law, the government office chief said on Thursday.

At his weekly press briefing, János Lázár said the CEU had “spent the whole summer” asking for the deadline for foreign universities to comply with the higher education law to be extended, but when parliament extended it “we are once again seeing political protests”.

“This isn’t fair,” Lázár said.

The government office chief noted that on Tuesday, lawmakers amended Hungary’s higher education law to extend the deadline for foreign universities and colleges operating in the country to meet the law’s criteria to January 1, 2019.

The government expects everyone to meet the law’s criteria within the allotted time, Lázár said.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.