Bratislava December 18, 1995

Dear High Commissioner,

I was pleased to meet with you at the Budapest Ministerial Council and to have an opportunity to discuss some contemporary national minority issues. I would also like to thank you for your letter dated on November 13, 1995 with your comments and recommendations on the draft law on the state language in the Slovak Republic. As the draft law was already discussed in the Slovak Parliament I forwarded your letter to its Chairman Mr. Gašparovi_ immediately.

Respect to our meeting in Budapest, I hope, I explained the Slovak Government intention in this matter. I would like to assure you that the Act on the State language will not affect the rights of national minorities to use freely their mother language in private as well as in public. The use of the national minority languages will be set down by a special law. The introductory work on it has already started in the Ministry of Culture.

I hope the next visit by you and the Team of Experts planned in January 1996, to which I am looking forward, will be successful and give you satisfying information on the position of the Hungarian national minority living in Slovakia.

Yours sincerely,

(signature)

Juraj Schenk