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| 14:29, September 11, 2009 |
Meeting between Hungarian, Slovak PMs yields 11-point statement
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Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai (R) listens as his Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico addresses during a joint press conference in Szecseny, Hungary, near the Slovakian border on Sept. 10, 2009. (Xinhua/Hungarian News Agency/Koszticsak Szilard)
Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico issued an 11-point joint statement at a meeting in the Hungarian border town of Szecseny on Thursday in an effort to alleviate tensions between the two countries, local newswire MTI reported.
The most recent dispute between the two neighboring nations concerns a new Slovak law restricting use of minority languages 10 percent of Slovakia's 5.4 million people are ethnic Hungarian
and was exacerbated when Slovak officials prevented Hungarian president from entering Slovakia to attend a ceremony.
Slovakia claims the language law is to allow Slovak minorities in areas of high ethnic Hungarian density to speak their own language, while Hungarians claim it is to prevent them from speaking theirs.
The statement addressed both of these issues, agreeing to accept all recommendations from the high commissioner on national minorities in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe regarding the language law, and saying they were both "sorry about the circumstances of the planned visit to Komarno" by Hungarian president. They agreed to disagree on the legality of preventing the president's private visit.
The declaration also called for increased pragmatic cooperation, job creation in border regions, and cross-border rail and road construction.
Politically, both PMs called for respecting the rights of minorities living in each other's countries. Both agreed to point out the social risks of tension between their nations to all political parties in their respective countries and to take action against extremist phenomena. The statement specified that they would take definite measures against extremist groups, xenophobia, intolerance, chauvinism, nationalism and all forms of violence.
Tensions between Hungary and Slovakia have deep-reaching historical roots. Slovakia was part of greater Hungary until the end of World War I, when a peace treaty turned several predominantly ethnic Hungarian regions over to a fledgling Czechoslovakia, angering many Hungarians.
The first major dispute between Hungary and newly independent Slovakia came in 1993, when Hungary breached a contract calling for construction of a dam and barrage system on the Danube, claiming that the contracting communist governments that preceded them had ignored environmental concerns. Slovakia responded by diverting the Danube. The European Court of Justice eventually ruled against both countries.
2001 and 2002 were marked by further disputes. In 2001 Hungary's parliament passed a law that offered assistance to ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries that was contested by all of its neighbors, including Slovakia. A year later Hungarian officials called on both Slovakia and the Czech Republic to void a set of decrees called the Benes Decrees issued in 1945 and declaring the collective guilt of German and Hungarian nationals for atrocities committed in then Czechoslovakia during World War II. Slovak and Czech leaders responded by reinforcing the decrees
In the meantime Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004 and the borders between them opened completely in 2008.
Nevertheless, tensions have been escalating since 2006, when the Social Democrat government of Robert Fico took office, in a coalition that included the extremist National Party headed by the vociferously anti-Hungarian Jan Slota, whose party remains part of the government coalition to this day.
Source: Xinhua
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