MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
OF THE REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY
Press and International
Information Department
hd: Budapest, 26 August - The positions of the Hungarian government and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (HDUR) differed over the points of the Hungarian-Romanian basic treaty, objected to by ethnic Hungarians in Romania.
This was stated at a press conference following more than two hours of talks between Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn and HDUR leaders, in Budapest on Monday.
Present at the talks were Foreign Affairs State Secretary Ferenc Somogyi and the State Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, Csaba Tabajdi.
The HDUR delegation included President Bela Marko, Reformed Bishop Laszlo Tokes, honourary HDUR president, and Csaba Takacs, administrative president.
The two sides were reported to have agreed that the document includes numerous positive elements, but still there is no agreement on the matter of the footnote related to Recommendation 1201 of the Council of Europe (the recommendation deals with the collective autonomy of minorities, the footnote deals with its interpretation), and the matter of church properties.
Tabajdi told journalists the prime minister had confirmed during the meeting that the Hungarian cabinet considers the text of the basic treaty to be final, and the related coordination as completed.
Reformed Bishop Laszlo Tokes said the HDUR was confronted with an accomplished fact, the Hungarian government did not take its views into consideration. In spite of this, the HDUR will not give up hope that the text can be amended to, for instance, include the matter of church properties, and that the signing of the treaty can be postponed until after the Romanian elections.
According to the bishop, the hastiness experienced in the final stage of the treaty can only be explained with an outside pressure.
Tokes said priorities of the Hungarian diplomacy have been upset, and the representation of extraterritorial Hungarian interests has been forced behind the integration efforts and the settling of relations with the neighbouring countries.
Foreign Affairs State Secretary Ferenc Somogyi told journalists the case in point does not imply a change in priorities, and the expectations of the international organizations have been known for quite some time.
He recalled that consultations were held on numerous occasions with representatives of ethnic Hungarians in Romania during the treaty preparatory stage, but Hungarian diplomacy never accepted the obligation of taking steps only with agreement from the HDUR.
According to the Hungarian cabinet's view, the treaty should be signed as soon as possible because it includes the maximum that can be attained.
HDUR President Bela Marko discussed the footnote added to Recommendation 1201 of the Council of Europe, evaluating it as the curtailment of the recommendation.
To this Somogyi said the footnote does not reduce the opportunities of ethnic Hungarians in Romania.
According to Marko, the basic treaty can, in the case of appropriate Romanian political will, improve the situation of ethnic Hungarians in Romania, but - in the case of other political will - it could conserve the current conditions, or could even worsen those.
Munich/Bonn, 26 August - Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn will be the guest of honour during the central ceremony marking the German Unity Day in Munich on 3 October, the Chancellor of the German Bavarian state government announced.
The prime minister was asked to take part in, and deliver a speech, by Bavarian state Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber.
Although this will be the first time that Horn is the guest of honour at the central ceremony marking the anniversary of German unification, he has been invited to attend the commemorations almost every year in view of his merits in allowing GDR refugees who fled to Hungary to leave for the West in September 1989.
The Hungarian prime minister was awarded the Prism prize in Kassel in early October 1995, in recognition of his work to promote understanding and unification among the European peoples.
Budapest, 26 August - Germany ensures collective rights to the Danish and the Serbian national minorities. However, it is a fact that the numeric proportion of these minorities lags far behind the number of ethnic Hungarians in Romania, MP Reinhard Freiherr of the German CDU/CSU said in Budapest on Monday.
He told a press conference held at the Prliament building it is also a fact that there are grave reservations about collective rights in several Western European countries, for instance, Great Britain, France, Spain and Italy.
Schorlemer is heading a multi-party delegation of the German Bundestag's German-Hungarian friendship group on a visit to Hungary.
Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn received the delegation earlier in the day, with talks reported mainly focussed on the European integration process.
The delegation also met the Chairman of Hungarian Parliament's Hungarian-German friendship group, Gyorgy Csoti, and members of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.
At the press conference, Schorlemer touched on the Hungarian-Romanian basic treaty and said efforts should be made to conclude a text which ensures appropriate scope to future positive development. The basic treaty is good if, in concert with its name, can serve as a foundation for further improving relations and the situation.
The German lawmaker confirmed that the interest of the Western integration institutions (both the European Union and NATO) is for the future new members to clarify their separate debates with each other prior to gaining membership, and to avoid taking problems similar to the Greek-Turkish conflict into the organizations.