Déclaration d’Européens inquiets pour l’université d’Europe centrale

We call on EU governments, leaders and the European Commission to strongly denounce the Hungarian government's attack on academic freedom.

In the past 24 hours the Hungarian parliament has fast-tracked into law a bill designed to force the closure of the Central European University (CEU), one of the most prestigious academic institutions in Europe.

For CEU to continue operating in Hungary, the new law would require the creation of a CEU campus in New York, as well as a bilateral education treaty between Hungary and the US federal government, which has no power to sign education treaties.

Contrary to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s affectation of concern for ‘fairness’ in competition between universities, these impossible requirements were expressly designed to target an independent university. This is an attack on academic freedom within the European Union. If CEU has to close, it will jeopardise EU-funded research by disrupting the scholarly projects in which CEU participates.

In the past, EU foreign ministers have rightly criticised government intimidation of academics and students in Turkey, and Russian attempts to close down the European University in St Petersburg. Yet they have thus far stayed silent on Hungary’s latest attempt to repress independent voices, inviting charges of hypocrisy and double standards. We believe the European Union should demonstrate its commitment to liberal values within as well as outside its borders.

We call on EU governments, leaders and the European Commission to strongly denounce the Hungarian government's attack on academic freedom, and urge Prime Minister Orban to abide by the fundamental principles and values in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union, and to rescind the laws that contradict them.

 

The following have signed in their individual capacities:

 

Yoeri Albrecht – Director, De Balie  

Douglas Alexander – former UK Secretary of State for International Development  

Gordon Bajnai – former Prime Minister of Hungary

Marek Belka – former Prime Minister of Poland 

Eric Beinhocker – Executive Director, Institute for New Economic Thinking, University of Oxford 

Emma Bonino – Co-chair of the Board of ECFR; former Foreign Minister of Italy  

Andrew Duff – Visiting Fellow, European Policy Centre  

Lykke Friis – Prorector, University of Copenhagen; former Minister for Climate, Energy and Gender Equality

Carlos Gaspar – Board Member, Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI)  

Heather Grabbe – Executive Director, Open Society Policy Institute  

Charles Grant – Director, Centre for European Reform  

Ulrike Guerót – Professor, Donau University  

Ayşe Kadıoğlu – Acting President, Sabanci University, Istanbul  

Mary Kaldor – Professor, London School of Economics  

Kaja Kallas – Member of the European Parliament

David Koranyi – Director, Energy Diplomacy Initiative, Global Energy Center, Atlantic Council

Pascal Lamy – Honorary President, Notre Europe; former Director-General of the WTO; former EU Commissioner   

Remzi Lani – Director, Albanian Media Institute 

Sonja Licht – President, Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence  

Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar – Member of European Parliament; former Justice Minister of Spain   

Dominique Moïsi – Senior Advisor, IFRI  

Andrzej Olechowski – former Foreign Minister of Poland  

Dick Oosting – former CEO, European Council on Foreign Relations  

Andrés Ortega – Senior Research Fellow, Elcano Institute  

Behlul Özkan – Assistant Professor, Marmara University  

Diana Pinto – Historian and author  

Kati Piri – Member of the European Parliament  

Georgi Pirinski – Member of the European Parliament; former Foreign Minister of Bulgaria  

Louise Richardson – Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford  

Albert Rohan – Ambassador (retired) 

Adam D. Rotfeld – Former foreign minister of Poland; Co-chairman of Polish-Russian Group on Difficult Matters; Commissioner of Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative  

Norbert Röttgen – Member of Parliament, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Bundestag 

Radosław Sikorski – former Foreign Minister of Poland  

Javier Solana – former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy & Secretary-General of the Council of the EU; former Secretary General of NATO  

Volker Stanzel – former Ambassador to China and Japan  

Alexander Stubb – former Prime-, Finance-, Foreign-, Europe- and Trade Minister of Finland  

Anna Terrón – Special Advisor to the European Commissioner for Trade; President, InStrategies  

Nathalie Tocci – Deputy Director, Istituto Affari Internazionali  

Tomáš Valášek – Director, Carnegie Europe 

Ivan Vejvoda – Director, Europe Project, Institute for Human Sciences