OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 33, 15 February 1996

SLOVAKIA DEVELOPS RELATIONS WITH AUSTRIA, OECD. Slovak Prime Minister
Vladimir Meciar met with Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky in Austria
on 14 February to discuss bilateral ties, Slovak media reported.
Vranitzky expressed support for the Visegrad countries' membership in
the EU. Meciar assured Vranitzky that the Slovak-Hungarian treaty will
be ratified in March and that Mochovce will be Slovakia's last nuclear
plant. With regard to the August abduction of President Michal Kovac's
son, Vranitzky stressed it is a matter for the courts, not a political
one. Also on 14 February, Jean-Claude Paye, secretary-general of the
OECD, held talks with top politicians in Bratislava over Slovakia's
membership in the organization. Paye praised Slovakia's macroeconomic
results and said full OECD membership is just "a matter of months." --
Sharon Fisher

HUNGARIAN POLITICAL UPDATE. The parliamentary caucus of the opposition
Christian Democrats on 14 February re-elected Tamas Isepy as its leader
after party president Gyorgy Giczy walked out of the meeting along with
his supporters. Isepy said the vote has no political message and
stressed that the parliamentary caucus will continue to support the
president, Hungarian media reported. Also on 14 February, Lajos Fur,
head of the opposition Hungarian Democratic Forum, announced he will not
run for re-election as party president at the national convention in
March. No reason was given for the decision. Sandor Lezsak, a founder of
the forum, and executive president Ivan Szabo are the only candidates to
date. -- Sharon Fisher

U.S. TROOPS FULLY DEPLOYED IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA. The U.S. has completed
the deployment of more than 23,000 troops in Bosnia and Croatia, U.S.
Assistant Secretary of Defense John White said in Tuzla on 14 February,
international media reported. He stressed that the troops will not
remain longer than 12 months . Speaking earlier in Budapest, he said
that "under the auspices of NATO," U.S. troops may extend their stay
beyond a year at bases in southern Hungary." -- Michael Mihalka

[As of 1200 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave


OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 32, 14 February 1996

HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES INCOME TAX AMENDMENT. The parliament and
coalition partners are considering amending the income tax law, passed
by the parliament last December, Hungarian media reported on 13
February. The opposition has called for fewer tax burdens and for the
48% tax rate on annual incomes over 900,000 forints to be lowered. The
junior coalition partner Alliance of Free Democrats, which did not vote
in favor of the bill, supported the amendment. It also reminded the
Socialists about the negative impact of the new tax brackets. In a
related development, the Finance Ministry plans to introduce a "social
insurance tax "in order to reduce the 60 billion forints social
insurance deficit. The Justice Ministry warned that the Constitutional
Court would most probably declare such a provision unconstitutional. The
Pension Insurance Commission said that a new tax would further increase
tax evasion and strengthen the black economy. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

ROMANIA, HUNGARY TO RESUME BASIC TREATY TALKS. Romania and Hungary on 13
February agreed to resume talks on a basic treaty at the beginning of
March and on Romanian President Ion Iliescu's reconciliation initiative
later this month, Romanian and international media reported. Romanian
Deputy Foreign Minister Marcel Dinu told his visiting Hungarian
counterpart, Ferenc Somogyi, that Romania's 1996 presidential and
parliamentary elections will not influence the talks. Somogyi said
Iliescu's proposed meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn in
March could result in the signing of the basic treaty. He added,
however, that it was not necessary for the two countries to join NATO at
the same time and that Hungary's earlier admission would not have a
destabilizing effect on the region. US Assistant Secretary of State
Richard Holbrooke, in Bucharest on 13 February, urged the two countries
to sign the treaty if they wanted to be admitted into NATO. -- Matyas
Szabo

ROMANIA'S HUNGARIAN MINORITY CONCERNED ABOUT DRAFT LAW ON POLITICAL
PARTIES. A spokesman for the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania
(UDMR) told OMRI on 14 February that the draft law on political parties,
currently being debated in the Senate, is causing concern within the
UDMR. Anton Niculescu said this was due to provisions requiring
political parties to have branches in at least 21 of the 41
administrative counties and allowing minority ethnics to set up their
own organizations or become members of political parties but forbidding
them to set up ethnic political formations. The UDMR--defined as an
umbrella organization of political, cultural, and professional
organizations of the Hungarian minority open to all nationalities--would
not be prevented from running in the elections under the new law.
Nonetheless, Niculescu said, the new regulations pose a potential
danger. -- Michael Shafir

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave