Hanko held talks with Nicolas Schmit, the European commissioner for jobs and social rights, and Iliana Ivanova, the commissioner for education and research, in Brussels on Thursday on "ending the exclusion of Hungarian universities, students and researchers from these programmes".

He noted that the Hungarian government has launched the Pannonia programme aimed at promoting mobility and international relations, adding that at the same time Hungary was entitled to the university and innovation funds linked to the Erasmus and Horizon schemes.

He said the Hungarian government submitted a bill to the European Commission last November with the aim of resolving the problems in a timely fashion, but had yet to receive a reply from the executive body.

The minister said he has invited the commissioners to Hungary so that they themselves could ask questions of the Hungarian university community. He said the government regulation on universities run by foundation had the backing of 80 percent of the university senates, adding that he had told the commissioners that "Brussels's disagreement isn't with the government, but actually with the autonomous senates."

Meanwhile, Hanko addressed a European Research Area conference on innovation and competitiveness where he called for a turnaround in European competitiveness.

The minister said the "Hungarian model" was a viable solution for this, pointing out that Hungary has tripled its innovation spending since 2010 and doubled the number of PhD students and the number of developers and researchers working at companies.

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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