Regional Development Minister Tibor Navracsics and EU Affairs Minister János Bóka told MTI in Brussels that talks with the European Union’s budget commissioner were held in “a good atmosphere”, which gives hope to Hungary that it could achieve “a breakthrough” and settle yet unresolved issues in connection with the Erasmus student program by the end of the autumn.
At their talks with Johannes Hahn, they agreed on speeding up talks and resolving technical problems in a bid to reach a consensus by the end of November and ensure the participation of Hungarian students in the Erasmus schemes, Navracsics said. “Our talks held on Wednesday indicated the European Commission being more flexible, also on matters concerning which the EC and the Hungarian government had very different positions,” he said, adding that those matters had not included the composition of the boards of Hungarian universities. János Bóka said that at the talks they had reaffirmed that the Hungarian government was ready to continue the talks with the European Commission on a political and technical level in the spirit “of constructive and loyal cooperation”. He said that together with Navracsics they had proposed to the commissioner that the political and technical aspects should be addressed separately at future talks with a view to speeding up the process. Commenting on the so-called super milestones, a set of requirements defined by Brussels for unlocking funding, Bóka said that the Hungarian government had fulfilled all of them appropriately.
Photo credit: Facebook/Navracsics Tibor