Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban looks on during a news conference with Italy's League party leader Matteo Salvini and Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, after their meeting in Budapest, Hungary on April 1 2021. Picture: REUTERS/BERNADETT SZABO
Budapest — Hungary’s government submitted legislation to tweak laws that underpinned its attacks against foreign-funded universities and civil society groups that the EU’s top court struck down for violating the bloc’s rules. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has waged campaigns against dissenting voices during a decade of consolidating power, including against academia and non-governmental organisations . EU leaders in December adopted tougher measures to rein in rule-of-law offenders, including the ability to withhold billions of euros in funding.
One amendment submitted to parliament would scrap legal provisions that the EU’s top court in 2020 said placed “discriminatory and unjustified restrictions on foreign donations to civil society organisations”. Another would amend rules that effectively barred the George Soros-funded Central European University from enrolling new students, which the EU court said violated academic freedom and other legal safeguards.