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| - A senior legal adviser told European judges Thursday that the law Hungary used to close down billionaire financier George Soros' college was not compatible with EU and WTO rules. The opinion of Advocate General Juliane Kokott is not binding on the Court of Justice of the European Union, but it will be seen as a sign that Viktor Orban's government in Hungary faces defeat in the case. The Hungarian-born US investor and philanthropist Soros founded the Central European University (CEU) in his native Budapest in 1991, but it was forced to largely move to Vienna in 2019 after falling foul of a new law. Soros, who stepped down as chairman of the university's board in 2007, also supports several civil society and pro-democracy initiatives and has been attacked by Orban's right-wing government. In 2017, Hungary amended its law to ban foreign-run higher education institutions unless their home country has a specific treaty and they have a teaching campus on home soil. The change to the law effectively forced the CEU out of Hungary. As Kokott notes in her legal advice, the CEU, registered in the state of New York, "was the only foreign higher education institution then active in Hungary which did not meet the new requirements". European officials have expressed concern about the rise of authoritarianism in Hungary, and in 2018 the European Commission lodged a legal cases against the amended law. In her opinion, Kokott found that the law breached a World Trade Organization rule -- which has been incorporated into EU law -- that foreign and domestic service providers be treated equally. "In addition, the requirement of an international treaty with the State of origin is contrary to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union," she wrote. "That requirement constitutes a disproportionate restriction on the freedom to found and to operate educational establishments and on academic freedom," she explained. The court has not yet set a date for its verdict in the case. csg/dc/arp/jv
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