Academic Freedom in East Central Europe: Worrying Trends and Required Actions

Das Leibniz-Forschungsnetzwerks Östliches Europa, unter Beteiligung des IOS, hat einen neuen Policy Brief veröffentlicht. Er enthält Empfehlungen zur Stärkung akademischer Freiheit in Europa.

Summary

Academic freedom is a fundamental value recognised by the EU in Article 13 of the Charter of Funda-mental Rights of the European Union: "Freedom of the arts and sciences. The arts and scientific research shall be free of constraint. Academic freedom shall be respected.” However, the current trend in many countries of Europe is worrying. Hungary, for example, ranks at the bottom 20-30% of countries world-wide when it comes to academic freedom. In most accession countries, academic freedom is in an increasingly precarious state. Deliberate misinformation strategies capitalize on public distrust to del-egitimize scientific expertise. This further aggravates the problem, as many voters do not see academic freedom as an important value at all.

The European Union, therefore, needs to take a more proactive approach to promote and defend this core principle. Creativity and critical reflection are crucial for innovative, resilient, forward-looking Eu-ropean societies and can flourish only under conditions of free research and teaching. This means sys-tematically strengthening the framework conditions that guarantee the core dimensions of academic freedom. The planned European Research Area (ERA) Act presents a unique opportunity to translate these principles into concrete legislative action. By embedding robust academic freedom protections within the ERA framework, the EU can establish binding standards that shield scientific institutions from external interference and disinformation campaigns. Such legislative measures would not only strengthen Europe's research capacity but also restore public confidence in scientific expertise.