Economy
There's a small window to resolve CEU situation in Hungary - U.S. Ambassador
Ambassador David B. Cornstein has stated that:
“CEU remains a priority for the U.S. Government and has overwhelming bipartisan support in the United States. I understand CEU’s position— prolonged uncertainty is not sustainable for an academic institution. However, a solution is still possible. There is a small window to resolve this, but it needs to happen fast."
After his arrival to Hungary in mid-September, Cornstein said after a two-hour discussion with PM Viktor Orbán that CEU will exist for many years.
“CEU is still open, it will be open tomorrow and I hope and I want it to remain so for many years to come. I feel that it will be so," he said after their first direct meeting.
Government spokesman Zoltán Kovács played down CEU’s decision as a “Soros-style political bluff". Hungarian-born financier and philanthropist George Soros is the founder of CEU.
He said CEU “had operated, still operates and will be operating in Hungary in the future, in our view." The announcement that the U.S.-accredited programmes will be moved from Budapest to Vienna is “part of this political bluff, and the government does not respond to such, it is not its duty to deal with such matters."
When asked whether further talks will be held between the parties, Kovács replied that CEU should instead deal with the facts that “it has been told a thousand times". The university knows Hungarian regulations under which it could operate, but instead of actual compliance its response is political bluff, he added.
CEU said the decision by its Board of Trustees comes in the face of the Hungarian government's crackdown on academic freedom, including a government ban on gender studies programs, which it labelled as “"a major infringement on academic freedom and university autonomy", the forced suspension of research related to migration, and punitive tax measures.Citing "an increasingly repressive political and legal environment" in Hungary, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations announced in May this year moving their Budapest-based international operations and staff to the German capital, Berlin. OSF is one of the world’s largest financiers of non-governmental organisations working in Hungary since 1984.
“CEU remains a priority for the U.S. Government and has overwhelming bipartisan support in the United States. I understand CEU’s position— prolonged uncertainty is not sustainable for an academic institution. However, a solution is still possible. There is a small window to resolve this, but it needs to happen fast."
I am working with both parties to continue the negotiations and find an acceptable resolution before December 1
, he added.After his arrival to Hungary in mid-September, Cornstein said after a two-hour discussion with PM Viktor Orbán that CEU will exist for many years.
“CEU is still open, it will be open tomorrow and I hope and I want it to remain so for many years to come. I feel that it will be so," he said after their first direct meeting.
Government spokesman Zoltán Kovács played down CEU’s decision as a “Soros-style political bluff". Hungarian-born financier and philanthropist George Soros is the founder of CEU.
He said CEU “had operated, still operates and will be operating in Hungary in the future, in our view." The announcement that the U.S.-accredited programmes will be moved from Budapest to Vienna is “part of this political bluff, and the government does not respond to such, it is not its duty to deal with such matters."
When asked whether further talks will be held between the parties, Kovács replied that CEU should instead deal with the facts that “it has been told a thousand times". The university knows Hungarian regulations under which it could operate, but instead of actual compliance its response is political bluff, he added.
CEU said the decision by its Board of Trustees comes in the face of the Hungarian government's crackdown on academic freedom, including a government ban on gender studies programs, which it labelled as “"a major infringement on academic freedom and university autonomy", the forced suspension of research related to migration, and punitive tax measures.Citing "an increasingly repressive political and legal environment" in Hungary, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations announced in May this year moving their Budapest-based international operations and staff to the German capital, Berlin. OSF is one of the world’s largest financiers of non-governmental organisations working in Hungary since 1984.
