Hungary set to miss September Erasmus+ return despite EU deal
Administrative delays in Budapest mean Hungarian students will likely miss the autumn deadline to rejoin the EU’s flagship exchange programme, undermining a political agreement to unfreeze billions in funding.
Hungary will almost certainly fail to meet the September deadline to rejoin the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange programme. Despite a high-profile political agreement struck earlier this year, Budapest is not expected to submit the required rule-of-law reforms until the end of August. The European Commission has warned that this timeline makes an autumn return impossible.
The suspension dates back to 2022, when Brussels excluded 21 Hungarian universities from Erasmus+ due to transparency concerns surrounding government-linked public interest trusts. Following Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s election victory in April, his government moved to renationalise these trusts. In May, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Magyar announced a deal to readmit Hungarian students for the upcoming academic year and unblock €16.4 billion in frozen EU funds.
However, the political promise has stalled on administrative procedures. To lift the ban, Hungary must satisfy the EU’s Conditionality Mechanism. "We don't see how Hungary will be back in Erasmus+ anytime soon if Budapest doesn't submit measures related to the Conditionality Mechanism early this summer, to unblock the funds," a Commission official said. Diplomatic sources indicate Budapest has completed the relevant steps but plans to submit them at the end of August as part of a broader package of 27 milestones.
This bureaucratic bottleneck has concrete consequences for higher education. Dr Loretta Huszák, a lecturer at Corvinus University, said securing EU financing for the 2026-27 academic year is now "practically impossible." She expects universities will spend the autumn organizing a return to Erasmus+, meaning normal funded exchanges will not resume until the 2027-28 academic year at the earliest.
The Hungarian government is attempting to bridge the gap using domestic finances. The Ministry of Education stated that international mobility is currently being funded through the national Pannónia Scholarship Programme. Magyar has also suggested exploring additional applications to place students at European universities, noting: "Obviously not in full, as the application deadlines have already passed, but we will find a solution so that Hungarian students can study at the best universities in Europe through additional applications."
Hungarian universities have already submitted their Erasmus+ mobility applications for 2026. The Education Ministry confirmed these grants are conditionally approved but cannot be accessed until the Council of the European Union lifts its restriction. While administrative groundwork can proceed in the meantime, actual funding depends entirely on Budapest accelerating its submissions to Brussels.
