RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  30 September 1999

HUNGARY'S FIDESZ SUES WEEKLY. FIDESZ, the main coalition
partner, is suing the "Elet es Irodalom" weekly for failing
to publish a correction to an article on mines owned by
Prime Minister Viktor Orban's family. FIDESZ press officer
Attila Farkas told Hungarian media on 29 September that
instead of an official correction, the weekly decided to
publish the letter FIDESZ sent to the editor requesting
that the mistake be corrected. Farkas added that this
decision raises other legal questions, since the published
letter includes the addresses of a number of FIDESZ
politicians who signed it. MSZ

ROMANIA, HUNGARY AGREE TO SET UP BATTALION. Romanian
Defense Minister Victor Babiuc and his visiting Hungarian
counterpart, Janos Szabo, agreed on 29 September to set up
a Romanian-Hungarian peacekeeping battalion by 1 January
2000, according to an MTI report cited by the BBC. The two
ministers said that the "excellent" relationships between
the two countries' military forces could serve as a model
for bilateral relations in other areas. In other news,
Istvan Szent-Ivanyi, the chairman of the Hungarian
parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee, told a visiting
Romanian parliamentary delegation that Hungary supports the
quick accession of Romania to NATO and the EU. He said the
fact that Hungary will have to impose visa restrictions on
Romanians as part of the EU's Schengen convention could
endanger relations between the two countries in the long
term. VG

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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  1 October 1999

EU AGAINST TRANSITION PERIOD ON SALE OF LAND. The EU has
prepared a position document that opposes requests from
prospective membership candidates to impose temporary
restrictions on foreign ownership of land, CTK reported on 29
September. The union has asked for more information from
countries that have requested such "transition periods,"
including the Czech Republic and Hungary. The Czech
Republic's chief EU negotiator, Pavel Telicka, has insisted
on the legitimacy of his country's stance on the issue, CTK
reported on 30 September. VG

HUNGARY PRAISES SLOVAKIA'S IMPROVED MINORITIES' POLICIES. The
Hungarian-Slovak Committee on Minorities met on 30 September
in Bratislava, according to an MTI report cited by the BBC.
The Hungarian delegation, led by Foreign Ministry State
Secretary Zsolt Nemeth, praised steps taken by the current
Slovak cabinet to remedy the violations of minority rights
committed by the previous government. However, the delegation
also expressed regret that the current law on the use of
minority languages in Slovakia was framed in a way that is
not acceptable to the country's Hungarian minority. The
Slovak delegation argued that the law is both acceptable to
European institutions and in accordance with the Slovak
Constitution. VG

HUNGARIAN CONSUL BUILDING IN ROMANIA FINED FOR FLYING FLAG.
The Mayor's Office in the city of Cluj-Napoca has slapped an
80,000 lei ($5) fine on the owner of a building inhabited by
the Hungarian consulate-general for flying the Hungarian
flag, according to a 29 September Hungarian TV2 report cited
by the BBC. Mayor Gheorghe Funar said the building's owner
would be fined again if the flag is not removed. VG

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               Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
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