REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY

To

H. E. Mr. Max van der Stoel

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities

The Hague

Budapest, 29 April 1997

Dear Mr. High Commissioner,

May I thank you for the latest recommendations kindly formulated in your letter of 26 February. As I pointed out on the occasion of your last visit to Budapest, we continue to consider your recommendations as most instructive for perfecting our legislation on national minorities and for improving the implementation of the respective laws. I am convinced that however flawless it may seem on paper, no legal and institutional framework can do without constant revision.

I have pleasure in informing you that preparations for a draft law on the direct parliamentary representation of Hungary's national minorities have been accelerated lately. Both parties of the governing coalition are now agreed to grant the national-level minority self-governments the right to draw up their own lists of candidates. Agreement has also been reached on the preferential treatment of these lists according to which in the 1998 election one third of the votes normally required for the election of candidates running on party lists will be sufficient for one nominee from each national minority to obtain a seat in the Parliament.

As to the question of adequate air time for Slovak language radio and television programs, the problem is caused by the current practice of live FM broadcasting of parliamentary sessions by the Kossuth Station of the Hungarian Public Radio. In cases sessions are drawn out, minority programs might in fact be cancelled or broadcast at a later date. To redress these irregularities, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities has made a recommendation which was accepted by the Steering Board of the Hungarian Public Radio. It called upon the management of the Radio to start consultations with the national minority self-governments on the rules of air time distribution and to carry out the necessary program restructuring to avoid farther violations of the relevant provisions of the Law on Public Radio and Television. Although it has no say in the programming policy of the Radio, the Government welcomes every effort to quickly remedy the situation.

State-subsidies allocated to the minority self-governments have increased since 1997 and the Government is ready to take farther steps to close the gap between their current allotments and their actual needs. To this end, preparations for a draft amendment to the Law on the Rights of National Minorities are underway.

In like manner, the Government is ready for consultations with the Slovak National-level Self-government with a view to farther improving the teaching of the Slovak language in Hungary. In fact, such consultations are already continuing at expert level.

I believe there is a certain correlation between the interest shown by the Slovak minority for learning their native language on the one hand, and the extent to which they deem it practical, on the other. The political, cultural and economic links between Slovakia and Hungary as well as the various forms of regional and cross-border cooperation or twin-town partnerships, etc. can help build consciousness of the benefits of belonging to a national minority and increase the readiness of all those concerned to make use of their rights recognized and protected by our legal system. I consider your recommendations and your whole activity as an encouragement for the promotion of these ideas on which the Hungarian Government remains committed to base its policy.

I look forward to welcoming you in Budapest soon again.

Yours sincerely,

(Laszlo Kovacs)