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EU Magistrate Slams Hungary for Targeting Soros-Funded College
(CN) – Hungary wrongly and unfairly drew up regulations that forced a university set up by American billionaire George Soros to move many of its classes to Vienna, a European magistrate said Thursday.
The magistrate’s nonbinding legal opinion for the European Court of Justice was the latest salvo in a fight between Hungary’s far-right government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and European institutions that accuse Hungary of becoming an authoritarian state under Orban’s leadership. Philanthropist George Soros attends the European Council on Foreign Relations annual meeting in Paris in May 2018. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File) In 2018, the Central European University closed many programs at its campus in Budapest and opened a campus in Vienna. The university said changes to Hungary’s higher education rules in 2017 made it illegal for it to continue offering its American-accredited programs in Budapest. Those changes to Hungary’s rules were unlawful and were designed to punish the Soros-funded university, according to Thursday’s legal opinion issued by Juliane Kokott, an advocate general for the Court of Justice, the Europe Union’s top court. Kokott is one of several magistrates who examine cases and provide the court’s judges with legal advice. Their opinions are not binding on the court, but the court typically follows their advice.
Hungary is embroiled in a wide-ranging legal and political fight with EU leaders over a series of laws passed since Orban came to power in 2010.
The European Parliament and the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, are taking legal action against Hungary. In September 2018, the European Parliament voted to initiate proceedings to punish Hungary, charging it had passed a number of laws that undermine the rule of law and violate democratic values and human rights.
Thursday’s legal opinion, though, was related to a case brought by the European Commission against Hungary that seeks to overturn regulations that targeted the Central European University and Soros. Orban, like others on the far right, accuses Soros of using his money to fund liberal causes, such as support for refugees, that Orban says undermines Hungary. But his rhetoric also carries anti-Semitic tones. Soros, who was born in Hungary, is Jewish and he has accused Orban of anti-Semitic attacks.
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https://www.courthousenews.com/eu-magistrate-slams-hungary-for-targeting-soros-funded-college/
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