Hungarian Tibor Navracsics becomes the new European Commissioner for Education. President of the European Student Union (ESU) Elisabeth Gehrke is critical of his previous policies.
Today, the new European Commission was announced. Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship will be Tibor Navracsics. He is an educated lawyer with a doctorate in political science. At present, he is Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Hungary.
“There were previous rumours that the new European Commission would not work with education, so I´m happy that has changed”, says Elisabeth Gehrke, President of the European Student Union.
“I hope that he can leave his anti-democratic values at home in Hungary. Tibor Navracsics has probably been given this Commissioner post to keep him away from more important posts. Education politics is usually conducted on a national level, so this Commissioner portfolio is not seen as that important”, she says.
What will be his policies?
“That´s difficult to say. He has not been chosen for his great experience in issues regarding education. The education goals are set until 2020, so he does not have much room to work with.”
“He has previously written an article about abolishing tuition fees in the entire EU, and I hope he will incorporate that opinion in his new work”, Elisabeth Gehrke says.
Avoid American universities
Swedish Cecilia Malmström got the post of Commissioner for Trade, something that makes Elisabeth Gehrke happy.
“I think she will do a very good job, especially now that the TTIP agreement is to be negotiated. The American standpoint is that education is a marketable good that should possibly be part of the agreement. We in the ESU would rather see that the EU does not invite American profit schools to be part of this agreement.”
Why not?
“They often do not have a healthy view on education. They try to profit from students by having large fees for low quality education. If the EU is to have an agreement with the USA concerning education, it has to be done with care”, Elisabeth Gehrke says.
Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science will be Carlos Moedas from Portugal, and Commissioner with responsibility for mobility inside the EU (which includes exchange between universities) will be Marianne Thyssen from Belgium.
Text: Carl-Johan Kullving
Translation: Carl-William Ersgaard
