Erasmus+ available again at all Hungarian universities

Erasmus+ is back for students at every Hungarian university!, Roxana Mînzatu announced on Monday on X. The Executive Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness emphasized that students at Hungarian universities which had previously undergone a model change had been missing out on opportunities that their peers across Europe had been able to enjoy, but “that is changing today. I am happy to welcome them back to the Erasmus+ family!”

On Monday, Mînzatu attended an event titled “Back to Erasmus” organized by Tempus Közalapítvány (Tempus Public Foundation), the Hungarian implementing agency for Erasmus. In a statement released that day, Tempus noted that that all legal obstacles have now been removed, and

the agreements related to the grants have been signed for all cases.

What are these agreements?

At the recommendation of the European Commission, the EU Council of Ministers launched the rule-of-law conditionality procedure against Hungary in 2022. Under this procedure-along with a partial freeze on subsidies-public-interest asset management foundations (known as "kekva”s, which is short for közérdekű vagyonkezelő alapítványok in Hungarian) and the institutions they maintain were excluded from all new EU funding commitments. The previous Hungarian government had spent months negotiating its commitments with the European Commission, but according to the Council of the European Union, it had failed to address the Commission’s objections raised months earlier, the KEKVAs were not operating with sufficient transparency, and political decision-makers continued to hold positions within them in a manner that constituted a conflict of interest.

The case of the Hungarian National Bank (known as the MNB-case) further highlighted the shortcomings of the regulations on conflicts of interest and demonstrated that the situation with the KEKVAs threatened more than just EU funds. According to the State Audit Office, the KEKVA behind the University of Kecskemét invested funds in a way that caused significant damage by making decisions influenced by personal conflicts of interest. The state eventually had to pay for the university’s campus a second time out of taxpayer money, and it still remains to be seen what will happen with remaining projects.

Due to the suspension of EU commitments, Hungarian universities undergoing a model change and those operated by a KEKVA were unable to renew their Erasmus grant agreements. These contracts were typically signed in the summer, for a two-year period, so for most institutions they were set to expire in the summer of 2024. However, in early 2024, the previous government announced that negotiations had stalled. In the fall of 2024, Balázs Hankó, then Minister of Culture and Innovation acknowledged that, beginning with the academic year starting at that time, students from the twenty-one affected institutions would no longer be able to participate in the Erasmus program. (They were technically not excluded from the program, as they could still host students, but indirectly, the decision caused disruptions even with regard to this.)

To mitigate the consequences, the previous government—much like the UK did with the Turing program after Brexit—launched an independent program called Pannonia. However, even the British are now set to return to the Erasmus program starting in 2027.

Based on a letter from the Commission, members of the former Hungarian ruling parties and universities that had undergone the model change criticised the European Commission’s “unjustified and unlawful decision” and some of the affected institutions even went to court, suing the Council of the European Union. The recent ruling in the case dismissed the lawsuits, stating, among other things, that the Council of Ministers had sufficiently justified the restriction. This retrospectively makes any claim that the decision was unlawful a lie.

The previous government could have had its 17 commitments reassessed at any time during the process, but it only did so officially in 2024, at the very last minute. Despite having amended legislation beforehand, it failed to meet all of the Commission’s expectations—even by its own admission—and the bulk of the changes were never actually implemented. In December 2024, the EU body listed dozens of problems with the law, which, despite this, remained unamended until the Hungarian elections in April.

The new Hungarian government reached a political agreement with the Commission in late May on how to fulfill the commitments related to the conditionality procedure tied to 16.4 billion euros. Since then, not only has it reformed the “KEKVAs,” but has also been gradually phasing them out beyond the Commission’s expectations. In September, the Magyar government notified the European Commission that it had completed the necessary steps. Following a Commission recommendation, member state ministers unanimously terminated the procedure on October 13, paving the way for the renewing of Erasmus contracts.

The very next day, Tempus Public Foundation, which is the implementing organization for Erasmus in Hungary informed the affected higher education institutions that the signing of the grant agreements had begun—Tempus said in response to a question from Telex in mid-October. According to their response, “contracts with all affected institutions are expected to be finalized by October 22 at the latest.”

Tempus’s Monday announcement confirmed what we had previously reported:

regular student exchanges are expected to resume in the second semester of the academic year 2026/2027. Certain other forms of mobility—such as short-term, mixed, and staff mobility—may resume even before then.

Two billion euros gone for good

Erasmus was not the only one to suffer as a result of the Council’s decision. This also created problems for the research cooperations within the Horizon Europe program, and the affected universities were complaining of losses amounting to millions of euros as early as the summer of 2023. Although they were not technically excluded from this program, many institutions were reluctant to submit joint applications with the affected Hungarian institutions, either out of caution or on principle. Bernadett Petri, head of the Hungarian Office for Promoting Development recently told HVG that it would take about five years for the struggling institutions to fully reintegrate into the EU grant system.

By failing to fulfill all of its commitments made during the conditionality procedure—including those related to the KEKVAs,—the previous Hungarian government effectively threw away a billion euros both at the end of 2024 and 2025. Despite the former ruling parties’ repeated evasions and lies, the fact is that Hungary has lost this money for good.