OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 24, 4 February 1997

HUNGARY URGES SLOVAKIA TO PASS MINORITY LANGUAGE LAW. Hungary on 3
February appealed to Slovakia to approve a long-delayed minority
language law, Reuters reported. Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs
said that by delaying the law's passage, Slovakia is contravening
commitments to its Hungarian minority and to the Council of Europe.
Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar and other government officials
promised to approve the legislation after the parliament passed a
controversial law on the Slovak language in November 1995. However, the
minority languages bill has yet to be placed before parliament, and the
Slovak nationalities council on 21 November voted against the approval
of such a law. Although that Slovak language law took effect at the
beginning of last year, its actual implementation was delayed until 1
January 1997. In recent days, controversy has centered over the fact
that Hungarian-language schools have begun to issue grade reports only
in Slovak, although bilingual versions had been issued by such schools
since 1921, Sme reported on 1 February. -- Sharon Fisher

HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS RUSSIA HAS OBSOLETE VIEW OF NATO. Laszlo
Kovacs on 3 February told Reuters that Russia's opposition to the
enlargement of NATO was based on an obsolete view and dismissed as
"nonsense" the idea that enlargement to include the Central European
states posed a threat to Moscow. Kovacs also said that the accession of
those who are widely considered the most advanced to join the
organization would not turn over the military balance in the region.
According to Kovacs, both by ruling out early membership for the Baltic
States and by stating it had no intention of stationing nuclear weapons
in Central Europe, NATO had taken away the biggest reasons for Russia to
feel threatened. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Valentina Huber

OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 25, 5 February 1997

SLOVAK FOREIGN MINISTER ON GABCIKOVO. Pavel Hamzik has confirmed that no
mutually acceptable agreement was reached during recent Slovak-Hungarian
talks on the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydropower plant, Hungarian dailies
reported on 5 February. Hamzik told the Hungarian-language Slovak
newspaper Uj Szo that Budapest and Bratislava have no choice but to wait
for the ruling of the Hague-based International Court of Justice. The
hearings are due to begin next month. Meanwhile, Gyorgy Szenasi,
Hungary's legal representative in The Hague, warned that increasing
speculation in Hungary about the outcome of secret Slovak-Hungarian
negotiations could be to Hungary's disadvantage. The governments'
attempt to seek an out-of-court settlement has unleashed a storm of
protest from opposition political parties and environmentalists in
Hungary. Even the junior coalition party, the Alliance of Free
Democrats, has said that Prime Minister Gyula Horn is jeopardizing
Hungary's chances at the hearings by continuing the consultations. --
Zsofia Szilagyi


[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave