OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 190,  1 October 1996

HUNGARIAN OFFICIALS, INVESTORS DISCUSS ENERGY PRICES. Following a
consultative meeting between top government officials and
representatives of foreign investors in Hungarian electricity and gas-
supply concerns, the government plans to announce an energy-price
increase in late October, Hungarian dailies reported on 1 October.
Foreign investors were outraged on hearing the government's decision
last month to postpone an energy-price hike planned for October until
January 1997. The investors bought into Hungary's energy sector last
year on the strength of a government promise that energy prices would
reflect expenses and ensure an 8% profit by January 1997. In other news,
the government decided to postpone the sale of a further stake of the
national oil and gas company MOL and the privatization of the national
electricity grid until next year. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

ATTEMPT TO BLOCK ROMANIAN-HUNGARIAN TREATY FAILS. A last-ditch attempt
by Romanian nationalists to delay ratification of a basic treaty with
Hungary failed on 30 September, Radio Bucharest reported. The Chamber of
Deputies adopted by a 187 to 19 vote its standing bureau's proposal that
the treaty be debated this week in emergency procedures. Deputies from
the ultra-nationalist Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR) attacked
the initiative for procedural reasons, saying it had not been previously
approved by the chamber's Legislative Council and Foreign Policy
Commission. They threatened to take the case to the Constitutional
Court. PUNR Deputy Chairman Ioan Gavra accused the chamber's chairman,
Adrian Nastase of the ruling Party of Social Democracy in Romania, of
forcing the ratification of a "document that has no applicability
whatsoever, either now or in the future." -- Dan Ionescu

As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Tom Warner