Ministers will withdraw from the boards of asset management foundations of universities from Feb. 15, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office has announced.
The government also expects lower-ranking government officials to do the same, Gergely Gulyás told a government press briefing.
The European Union earlier raised concerns of corruption regarding the foundations.
The Hungarian government has always been ready to meet the EU halfway in “a rational compromise”, Gulyás said. The government “has even supported requests without any legal basis if they do not harm the country’s interests,” he said. “The European Commission should only be allowed make demands based on community law, but we are way past that point,” he said, adding that it would be easier to conduct talks “if Brussels made it clear what it wants, but that’s not how the consultations are going”. He added that there was nothing stopping the government from making further changes to the conflict-of-interest rules of foundation boards. The university foundations will no longer have politicians in them, and if necessary the government is prepared to abolish the life tenure of the foundations’ board members, he said.