The CEU has said it is authorized to issue degrees recognized in both the U.S and in Hungary.

The European Commission expressed concern at Hungary’s amendment to its Higher Education Act as well as its adherence to European Union values at a meeting of the College of Commissioners in Brussels today. The College discussed last week’s amendments made to the 2011 National Higher Education Act by Hungary’s Parliament restricting the educational and funding activities of foreign universities in Hungary. The discussion also included Hungary’s draft law on the funding of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the country’s treatment of migrants.

“We need to quickly complete a thorough legal assessment of its [the law’s] compatibility with free movement of services and the freedom of establishment,” EU Commisioner Frans Timmermans said of the Higher Education Act, adding that the Commission would consider next steps by the end of April.

The amendments, which were signed into law on Monday by Hungarian President Janos Ader, were championed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbàn and are seen as specifically targeting the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, founded by Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros. The CEU will most likely have to shut down given the way the new laws are written.

“The amendments are set up to look trivially procedural but in reality they demand actions from the CEU that it cannot deliver and require it to adopt rules that would endanger its academic autonomy,” Abby Innes, a professor at the European Institute of the London School of Economics, told The Hindu. The new rules would require, among other things, the CEU to open a campus in the state of New York as well as an inter-governmental agreement with the US Federal government, even though higher education is a state subject in the US, Ms. Innes said.

The university, founded in 1991, has some 1,400 students from 130 countries. The new laws have been met by widespread protests in Budapest over the last few weeks with some 70,000 protestors marching on Sunday across the Danube to Parliament. The CEU has found support among international academics and governments including the United States State Department.

Mr Orbàn, who is known to be a critic of the organizations run by Mr Soros, has taken issue with the CEU issuing diplomas that are recognized both by the US and Hungary. Ironically, Mr Orbàn himself attended Oxford University as a Soros Scholar in 1989.

"Not even a billionaire can stand above the law, therefore this university must also obey the law,” Mr. Obran had said in an interview to the press in March.

The CEU has said it is authorized to issue degrees recognized in both the U.S and in Hungary.

" The CEU has breached no law. It is being specifically targeted in a discriminatory manner, apparently because it remains and independent and critical institution that goes against the grain of a government that has increasingly sought to establish a monologue of power," Ms. Innes told The Hindu.

Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party is affiliated to the European People’s Party (EPP), a group of mostly centre-right parties and Christian Democrats, including the parties of powerful figures such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker. The brand of politics practiced by the relatively farther right wing Mr. Orban has created rifts within the party. The protection he has enjoyed by association to the EPP has started to wane.

The European Commission’s discussions on Wednesday included concerns about a draft Hungarian law that would require NGO’s to declare foreign funding, something that the Commission would be following closely, Mr Timmermans said on Wednesday.

“ There can be legitimate public interest reasons for ensuring transparency of funding, but any measures need to be proportionate and must not create undue discrimination within the EU.”

The Commission also noted with concern Hungary’s treatment of migrants. The country passed a law in March allowing for the automatic detention of migrants at the border. Some 110 migrants, including unaccompanied minors, are housed in camps made of shipping containers surrounded by razor wire.

Mr. Timmermans said that the new asylum law is unlikely to be compatible with EU law. “The College will keep a very close eye on whether timely progress can be made, and will act if we do not see positive developments soon.”