(CN) — Hungary on Tuesday lost another round in its wide-ranging rule-of-law fight with European Union leaders after Europe's highest court said a Soros-funded university was illegally forced to move most of its classes to Vienna from Budapest.
The grand chamber of the European Court of Justice blasted Hungary's far-right government for amending its higher education laws in such a way as to make the Central European University unable to teach American-accredited classes at its campus in Budapest. The ruling came in an infringement case brought by the European Commission, the EU's executive body, challenging Hungary's maneuvers targeting the Central European University. It has not yet been translated into English.
After the fall of communism, Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire George Soros set up the university in 1991 as an institute based around pro-democratic teachings meant to help foster a pluralistic society in Hungary.
But since taking power in 2010, Hungary's far-right nationalist government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban has fed into conspiracy theories claiming Soros and his liberal causes are seeking to undermine traditional ways of life and traditional values in Hungary.
Besides targeting the Central European University, Orban has sought to close down pro-democracy and humanitarian groups funded through Soros' philanthropic Open Society Foundations. These groups have helped refugees in Hungary.
Orban is a strident anti-immigrant voice in Europe, postulating that Europe's Christian foundation is being destroyed by liberal values and Muslim immigration. He has even touted the benefits of “illiberal democracy.”
Tuesday's ruling strikes down amendments Hungary made in 2017 to its law on higher education requiring universities from outside of the EU’s economic zone be approved by an international treaty signed with the Hungarian government and that any such foreign university offer the same courses it teaches in Hungary in its home country. The Central European University was the only institution in Hungary affected by the amendments, according to court documents.
For the Luxembourg-based court those changes violated World Trade Organization rules governing the free trade in services and also broke EU laws protecting academic freedom. WTO and EU laws require foreign and national higher-education institutions to be treated equally, the Grand Chamber found.
The ruling notes that the EU as a whole is bound by its commitment to uphold WTO rules, in this case the General Agreement on Trade in Services, commonly known as GATS. As a signatory to GATS, the EU has agreed to the liberalization of trade in private educational services, the ruling said.
Hungary's law changed “the conditions of competition to the detriment of the institutions concerned and in favor of Hungarian institutions,” the court said in a statement about its ruling.
As for requiring that a foreign university offer the same courses it teaches in Hungary in its home country, the court said this constitutes a “competitive disadvantage.”
The court also held that Hungary was impeding academic freedom and violating EU law by “depriving the universities concerned of the autonomous infrastructure necessary for conducting their scientific research and for carrying out their educational activities.”
In 2018, the Central European University closed many programs at its campus in Budapest and opened a campus in Vienna. The university said changes to Hungary’s higher education rules in 2017 made it illegal for it to continue offering its American-accredited programs in Budapest. The university is registered in New York but it has no campus there.
"This judgment is a total repudiation of Viktor Orban's legal strategy since 2017," said Michael Ignatieff, the university's president and rector, during a news conference in Vienna. “This judgment vindicates us legally and politically."
He said the university will consider bringing back American-accredited courses to Budapest.
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