Source: European Parliament
The Council Implementing Decision 2022/2056 (CID)[1] sets out measures to protect the EU budget from breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary under the mechanism established by the Conditionality Regulation[2].
Under Article 2(2) of the CID no legal commitments shall be entered into with any public interest trust established on the basis of the Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity maintained by such a public interest trust.
The CID stipulates in its Article 2 that the Commission (and the implementing bodies that it entrusts with budget implementation in indirect management such as the Erasmus+ National Agency in Hungary) cannot enter into legal commitments with these public interest trusts or entities maintained by them, as listed in the annex to this Act.
This list includes 25 higher education institutions where there is a risk of possible conflicts of interest in the boards of these trusts.
As regards the Modul University Vienna, an assessment of its ownership structure, carried out by the Erasmus+ National Agency in Austria on the basis of documentation provided by the university itself, concluded that since 12 May 2023 it is to be considered an entity maintained by Mathias Corvinus Collegium, a public interest trust listed in the annex to the Hungarian Act IX of 2021. Communication on this assessment was conducted exclusively with Modul University.
EU-funded projects, including under Erasmus+, managed by entities that are not concerned by the Hungarian Act IX of 2021, continue to be implemented.