Bozur
Amicus
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Post by Bozur on Dec 16, 2009 15:37:56 GMT -5
Wednesday December 16, 2009 Hungary protests Slovak law, says breaches EU norms
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's prime minister said on Wednesday that Slovak legislation punishing the use of minority languages is unacceptable and goes against the basic values of the European Union and the Lisbon Treaty.
Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said in a statement that Slovakia had breached the so-called Szecseny an agreement signed by the two countries in September. Hungary's Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai arrives on the second day of an EU Heads of States summit at the EU council headquarters in Brussels December 11, 2009. (REUTERS/Sebastien Pirlet)
Then the two central European neighbours tried to ease tensions and agreed to accept recommendations from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to resolve differences over a Slovak language law, which Hungary says hurts minority rights.
The government of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico approved rules on Wednesday governing how the law will be implemented. It will come into force in January 2010.
"The approved directives go against not only the Szecseny agreement but also against the OSCE recommendations which Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had fully accepted," Bajnai said.
"The government is firmly requesting Slovakia to suspend the application of punitive measures for the period of ongoing talks as those cause moral and social damage, and further increase fear among minority communities."
Bajnai said if Slovakia does not suspend the measures, Hungary will give financial and legal help to the ethnic Hungarian minority in Slovakia to help their legal fight.
Some 10 percent of Slovakia's 5.4 million people have Hungarian roots.
The Slovak language law stipulates only Slovak may be used in most public offices and institutions and it is seen by many in the Hungarian minority as the latest in a series of moves by nationalist-minded governments to suppress their culture.
The OSCE had raised concerns over the implementation and sanctions of the law.
The law allows the Culture Ministry to impose fines that can reach 5,000 euro ($7,284). The ministry set 21 criteria for evaluation of a possible breach of the legislation.
"The law on the state language is not about the use of minorities' languages. It is for the protection of the state language, for the protection of Slovak citizens to use the state language ... We respect rights of minorities," Slovak Culture Minister Marek Madaric said after the government meeting.
The ministry said it cooperated with OSCE in Europe when drafting the rules of implementation.
Relations between the two ex-communist states have always been patchy but they worsened after Fico brought the rightist Slovak National Party (SNS), known for harsh rhetoric against minorities, into his ruling coalition after 2006 elections.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than in Budapest and Martin Santa in Bratislava) thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/12/17/worldupdates/2009-12-16T234953Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-447817-1&sec=Worldupdates
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Post by oszkarthehun on Dec 26, 2009 19:44:09 GMT -5
Slovak authorities are racist xenophobes, they have issue with the long Hungarian history of near half of their country and especially much of southern Slovakia which had many Hungarian majority population areas when it was ceded to Slovakia in Trianon.
Wednesday December 16, 2009 Hungary protests Slovak law, says breaches EU norms
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's prime minister said on Wednesday that Slovak legislation punishing the use of minority languages is unacceptable and goes against the basic values of the European Union and the Lisbon Treaty.
Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said in a statement that Slovakia had breached the so-called Szecseny an agreement signed by the two countries in September. Hungary's Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai arrives on the second day of an EU Heads of States summit at the EU council headquarters in Brussels December 11, 2009. (REUTERS/Sebastien Pirlet)
Then the two central European neighbours tried to ease tensions and agreed to accept recommendations from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to resolve differences over a Slovak language law, which Hungary says hurts minority rights.
The government of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico approved rules on Wednesday governing how the law will be implemented. It will come into force in January 2010.
"The approved directives go against not only the Szecseny agreement but also against the OSCE recommendations which Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had fully accepted," Bajnai said.
"The government is firmly requesting Slovakia to suspend the application of punitive measures for the period of ongoing talks as those cause moral and social damage, and further increase fear among minority communities."
Bajnai said if Slovakia does not suspend the measures, Hungary will give financial and legal help to the ethnic Hungarian minority in Slovakia to help their legal fight.
Some 10 percent of Slovakia's 5.4 million people have Hungarian roots.
The Slovak language law stipulates only Slovak may be used in most public offices and institutions and it is seen by many in the Hungarian minority as the latest in a series of moves by nationalist-minded governments to suppress their culture.
The OSCE had raised concerns over the implementation and sanctions of the law.
The law allows the Culture Ministry to impose fines that can reach 5,000 euro ($7,284). The ministry set 21 criteria for evaluation of a possible breach of the legislation.
"The law on the state language is not about the use of minorities' languages. It is for the protection of the state language, for the protection of Slovak citizens to use the state language ... We respect rights of minorities," Slovak Culture Minister Marek Madaric said after the government meeting.
The ministry said it cooperated with OSCE in Europe when drafting the rules of implementation.
Relations between the two ex-communist states have always been patchy but they worsened after Fico brought the rightist Slovak National Party (SNS), known for harsh rhetoric against minorities, into his ruling coalition after 2006 elections.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than in Budapest and Martin Santa in Bratislava) thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/12/17/worldupdates/2009-12-16T234953Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-447817-1&sec=Worldupdates
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Post by dezboy on Jan 28, 2010 19:03:14 GMT -5
Ethnic Tensions
Some background to this conflict can be found in the Treaty of Trianon, signed in Versailles in 1920. The peace treaty between the victors of World War I and the government of Hungary drew borders that left millions of ethnic Hungarians living outside the state's borders. Today, ethnic Hungarians make up 10 percent of Slovakia's population of 5.4 million. Tensions between the two groups have been exacerbated recently by language regulations, a dispute regarding geographical names in a school textbook and the harsh anti-Hungarian rhetoric of Jan Slota, the chair of the right-wing Slovak National Party (SNS), which is part of Fico's coalition government. ("The Hungarians are a cancer in the body of the Slovak nation," Slota is quoted as saying.) The tense situation has led many ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia to lobby for a degree of self-administration or autonomy, while those opposed to such plans view them as steps toward a reunified "Greater Hungary."
These problems are not limited to their Slovak-Hungarian aspect. There is also tension between Hungary and Romania, where 1.5 million ethnic Hungarians live. In March, when Solyom had planned to take part in Hungarian national day celebrations in Romania with ethnic Hungarians, Romania withdrew his plane's landing permit and forced him to enter the country by car.
In Tuesday's newspapers, German commentators expressed both worry and outrage over the current situation. They worry that, if left alone, this problem festering in the southeastern corner of the EU might explode into a repeat of the Yugoslavia of the early '90s. And they are livid that the EU has done little to mediate and diffuse this potentially explosive situation.
"But even if the conflict seems rather insignificant at the moment, these Eastern European arguments are very bitter. The Slovaks view the Hungarian president's attempted visit as a provocation, while the Hungarians are talking about the affair as if it involved a breach of international law. This is becoming dangerously close to playing with fire. Today, it's hard for anyone to imagine that things between Slovakia and Hungary could escalate. But, in the 1990s, the Yugoslavians showed us all that very different -- and unimaginable -- things are still possible even in today's Europe."
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