MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
OF THE REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY
Press and International
Information Department
Subotica, 29 August - The Alliance of Free Democrats - the junior governing party - has no illusions, and does not believe that the state of the Hungarian minority in Romania will improve the day after the Romanian-Hungarian basic treaty is signed, Matyas Eorsi, chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs committee said on Thursday .
In a lecture, on basic treaties, delivered at the "open University" of Subotica, Eorsi added, however, the Alliance believes that while denying the acceptance of the basic treaty would not help Hungarians, there is a chance after the signing that an improvement, in the long run, will set in the living conditions of Hungarians in Romania.
He said that Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs proposed 11 months ago the compromsie agreement now accepted by Romania that recommendation 1201 of the Council of Europe be incorporated in the basic treaty, but that the contracting parties add that it does not represent the acceptance of ethnic based territorial autonomy and collective rights.
Eorsi said he considers the resignation in principle of collective rights regrettable but stated that agreement has been reached on granting several collective rights in practice in the provisions dealing with the minority issue.
The mere existence of the basic treaty means that the issue of minority rights no longer depends on political will, but that the Romanian government accepted written obligations, he pointed out.
He said Hungarian politics is aimed at winning over moderates in Romania and speeding up the European integration of Romania, since the state of the Hungarian minority can improve if others than extremists are in power, and the EU and NATO are the organisations that can take Romania to task for observing democratic rules.
He denied rumours that Hungary has begun talks with Yugoslavia on preparing a basic treaty.
Subotica, 29 August - Hungarian Parliament"s Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Matyas Eorsi today said the junior coalition Alliance of Free Democrats (AFD) was open to the idea of a new Hungarian-Hungarian summit, but believed that discussing concrete government measures is outside the competence of such a meeting.
The politician was speaking to MTI in connection with a call by Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (HDUR) honorary president Laszlo Tokes for a conference of parliamentary parties in Hungary and in neighbouring countries next week.
According to Eorsi, such a meeting should be prepared better than the Budapest summit held in July. (Representatives of Hungarian interest organizations in surrounding countries, the Hungarian government and Hungarian parliamentary parties met in Budapest on 4-5 July at a conference entitled "Hungary and Hungarians Beyond Its Borders"). "I am saying this because after the July meeting everyone expressed satisfaction over the restored consensus, while a long-unseen anti-Hungarian campaign started first not only in Slovakia, but also in Romania. The summit should be prepared so that its document would not be acceptable by the participants only, but does not possibly offer a basis for renewed hatred-mongering, he added.
Asked whether the Hungarian-Romanian treaty's signature improves Hungary's European integration chances, Eorsi said, "I think it does, but the main point is not this. Even if Hungary was already an EU member or had no chance at all to get in, we would have to conclude the basic treaties, for we may have conflicts with the Romanian government, but Romanians and Slovaks will always be our neighbours, and we have to find some sort of compromise."
He noted that leading EU and NATO politicians always declare they do not want new conflicts within their organizations, but they did not regard Hungary as a conflict-seeking country.
Budapest, 29 August - Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn on Thursday received U.S. Senator Richard G. Lugar (Rep.), in Budapest.
The senator said the American side believes Hungary's membership in NATO is a logical consequence of the preparations that have been in progress for several years.
He said the U.S. particularly evaluates the relations between the two defence ministries, and cooperation implemented in the framework of IFOR, the level of which, according to Lugar, far surpasses the frameworks of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme.
The senator was also appreciative of the efforts aimed at bringing about the Hungarian-Romanian basic treaty.
Prime Minister Horn, briefing the senator about Hungary's situation, placed special emphasis on continuing the internal transformation of the country, and on preparations for joining the Euro-Atlantic system of institutions.
Budapest, 29 August - The United States Senate firmly supports the enlargement of NATO, and considers Hungary as a potential candidate for membership, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (Rep.) said in Budapest, in the course of his meeting with Hungarian Minister of Defence Gyorgy Keleti.
Lugar was highly appreciative of Hungary's performance and expressed gratitute for the support provided to the IFOR mission.
Washington, 29 August - The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved a review of the first programme covering a loan agrement concluded last spring, confirming that the deficit laid down in the agreement could be sustained, and the performance of the economy is in line with the goals of the adjustment program.
IMF sources told MTI's Washington office that the approval of the first programme would technically enable Hungary to draw more loans, but Hungary does not not intend to do that.
Hungarian government officials have repeatedly stressed that they will not raise the loan, and needed to conclude the agreement for a positive assessment of the economy.
The agreement concluded last March is about a SDR 264.18 million sum - approximately a USD 390 million standby loan with a 23 month maturity period.
In the agreement Hungary guarantees that the public finance deficit will not exceed 4 per cent of the GDP, and the current account deficit will be USD 2 billion at most.
The sources said the closure of the review also means that the IMF supports the economic policy pursued by the Hungarian government and takes a a favourable assessmetn of the processes that have been going on since March 1995.
Budapest, 29 August - The ministers of agriculture of member states in the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) - the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia and Hungary - held their 4th conference in Budapest on Thursday.
The discussions served to prepare the agricultural issues to be discussed at the meeting of CEFTA prime ministers, scheduled for mid-September.
Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Laszlo Lakos, speaking at a press conference, said participants had evaluated, among other things, the state of agriculture trade within CEFTA in the light of benefits introduced at the beginning of the year. Although no final and precise evaluation can be given about this issue, it is clear that export-import liberalization within CEFTA, and the related talks, should be continued.
Participants of the conference also discussed the enlargement of the organization to include Romania and Bulgaria. Talks were held on the mutual recognition of quality certificates, and on the transformation of agricultural policy means and subsidy systems.
The ministers also agreed to expand the agrarian information system of CEFTA, and called for ensuring access to the data and information accumulated in the system for the member countries.
The liberalization of agricultural trade between the member countries did not harm trade turnover in agricultural products, the ministers agreed. Only the Slovak minister reported a decline in the first half of the year.
Although the Polish agricultural trade balance also shows a deficit in trade with CEFTA countries, Minister of Agriculture Roman Jagielinski, Polish Deputy Prime Minister, said this was due to the fact that the Polish receiving market is greater than in all other CEFTA countries.
Slovak Minister of Agriculture Peter Baco noted that the new members must adapt to CEFTA requirements, mainly to agricultural regulation. He said what had happened in the case of Slovenia, when the agricultural issues had to be clarified after it was accepted as a member, cannot be repeated again.
Czech Minister of Agriculture Josef Lux, Deputy Prime Minister, called for eliminating the price subsidies of agricultural products in the CEFTA countries as soon as possible. He said this could provide a good basis for attaining the zero customs level, planned for 1998.
According to figures for the first half of 1996, 15 per cent of Hungarian agricultural exports were to the CEFTA countries, and 5 per cent of imports originated from there. This proportion corresponds with the figure for 1995 both for exports and imports.
Budapest, 29 August - Hungary will apply to the Munich-based European Patent Organization (EPO) this year and hopes to become a member in two or three years' time. This means that patents registered with the EPO will then automatically come under protection in Hungary as well, the Hungarian Patent Office (HPO) officials told a news conference in Budapest on Thursday.
The subject of the briefing was legal protection in agriculture and food industry.
The officials of the HPO, founded one hundred years ago, said that due to the rapid development of biotechnology research, the number of patent applications in the field had increased by leaps and bounds since the end of the previous decade. Inventions based on modern biotechnology methods have been patented in Hungary since 1978, with the number of applications rising from less than 100 until 1988 to over 200 a year in the 1990s. Processes involving genetic engineering have also appeared in addition to classic methods using microorganisms and antibiotics, and the production of fermented foodstuffs. Today the number of patent applications submitted for modern biotechnology processes by far exceeds that for conventional methods.
Farm and food-related announcements received by the HPO made up only 6 per cent of all applications in 1989, as compared to nearly 10 per cent in 1995.
Budapest, 29 August - At its customary session in Budapest on Thursday, the Hungarian cabinet approved bills on the issuing of securities, on investment services and securities exchange, credit institutes and financial ventures, and on the State Money and Capital Market Supervision.
The cabinet will submit these to Parliament with an urgency motion, in order that they come into effect from 1 January, 1997.
The most important aim of the new legal measures is to protect investors, to meet the demands of European integration, and to formulate the changes which have become necessary in the wake of Hungary's membership in the OECD.
The cabinet also approved the agreement signed between the Hungarian and the Macedonian governments in Budapest on 12 May, 1996, on international road passenger and freight transport.
Budapest, 28 August - It is the joint intention of the ruling coalition parties in Hungary (the Hungarian Socialist Party - HSP, and the Alliance of Free Democrats - AFD) to conform to the original timetable for working out the new constitution, senior politicians of the governing parties announced following the session of the Coalition Coordination Council in Budapest on Thursday.
Following the nearly 90-minute-long conference, AFD Chairman Ivan Peto reported that his party had acknowledged that Prime Minister Gyula Horn, Chairman of the HSP, will nominate the current minister in charge of privatization, Tamas Suchman, to head the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
At the session, the HSP reiterated its proposals related to continuing the constitutionalization process. However, the AFD will confirm its final position on these only after it is familiarized with the text versions.
The two ruling parties agreed they wish to promote the earliest possible election of judges to the Constitutional Court, and strive to reach an urgent decision on the matter of who will be the next president of the State Audit Office.
There were topics discussed at the conference in which the coalition parties did not agree, however, the leader of the HSP's parliamentary group, Imre Szekeres, said the importance of these is not of a scale that would influence political life. As an example, he said that one of the debated issues is the amendment of the House Rules of Parliament.