János Bóka, the EU affairs minister, said in Brussels on Tuesday that the government is "doing everything" to make sure that Hungarian students and researchers no longer suffer discrimination.
Bóka vowed to use "all political and legal means" at its disposal as well as pursuing consultations with the European Commission in connection with the commission's objections over the boards overseeing Hungarian foundation-run universities.
The European Commission has said Hungarian law changes adopted in November aiming to address risks of conflicts of interests regarding "public interest trust" boards were insufficient to warrant the lifting of EU budget conditionality measures. Universities maintained by foundations will continue to be barred from the Erasmus+ and Horizon programmes.
Bóka said it appeared that the commission's requirements went "far beyond" those adopted by the EU Council.
"It's hard to interpret this as other than a signal from the commission that it is using this procedure to exert political pressure," he said.
Meanwhile, ahead of today's council meeting, Bóka noted that three Montenegro accession chapters have been closed and a second group was opened with Albania.
Annual enlargement conclusions are expected to be adopted at the General Affairs Council meeting, enabling the relaunch of the Serbian accession process, he said.
Today's meeting will also consider Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, migration, the EU's role in the world as well as the situation in Moldova and Georgia, he noted. Improving the efficiency of European institutions, EU-UK and EU-Switzerland relations, and the programme of the next trio presidency presented by Poland, Denmark and Cyprus are also on the meeting's agenda, he added.