From the 2026 budget audit
81.9 millió Ft to send an artists' academy to international conferences.
International conference travel and membership fees for the MMA as a corporation — costs a voluntary association would fund from its own resources.
Roughly 20 Ft per taxpayer per year — 81.9 millió Ft so a state-funded artists' academy can maintain its international memberships and attend international events at public expense.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: the MMA's participation in international artistic bodies and conferences. The unseen: every taxpayer who funds an organisation's external representation — the kind of cost any private association, professional body, or voluntary academy funds from its own membership dues.
Objection
"International presence is important for Hungarian artistic culture — it opens doors and builds networks that benefit the whole arts sector."
Answer
A voluntary successor academy is free to maintain whatever international memberships and conference attendance its own resources will support — and to raise a budget for it from its members and patrons. The argument applies to every private association that funds its own international engagement. The question is not whether the connections are valuable but whether every Hungarian taxpayer should be compelled to pay for them.
Share if you think an artists' academy's international conference trips are a cost its own members should bear, not the general taxpayer.
The analyst's verdict
International Programmes, Conferences, International Membership Fees
Rationale
International conference participation and membership fees in international artistic bodies. These are the costs of the MMA's own international activity as a corporation; with the academy returning to voluntary status, its international memberships and conference attendance are funded by the voluntary body from voluntary resources, as any private association funds its own external representation. There is no rights-protection or constitutional function here.
Transition mechanism
Eliminate in the 2026 cycle. International membership commitments are settled to the end of the paid term and not renewed at state expense; a voluntary successor academy assumes whatever memberships it chooses to fund.
Affected groups
The MMA as a corporation and the international bodies receiving its membership fees; no individual's rights are affected.
Free Society Institute
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