Following the passing of the Law On State Language in November 1995, Slovak Prime Minister Meciar was still optimistic about Slovak-Hungarian relations, despite Hungarian complaints about the new law, and talked of a political thaw and improved trade. Foreign Minister Juraj Schenk said that the process of treaty approval was still on course, but added that Hungarian reaction to the Law On State Language had created a negative atmosphere in the parliamentary committees discussing the treaty. Indeed, SNS deputies called for the ratification process to be halted. A parliamentary debate on the treaty, scheduled just before the Christmas recess, was postponed into the new year by a majority vote. The process dragged on through the winter, despite a pledge of support in January 1996 from SNS deputies. After a series of assurances from Slovak politicians that ratification was imminent, the treaty was finally passed by parliament on 26 March 1996, just over a year after it was first signed. All the ethnic Hungarian deputies abstained from the vote, which was otherwise virtually unanimous. However, there was an addition to the text of the treaty that had been signed by the two prime ministers in March 1995. These stated baldly that Slovakia did not recognise the principle of collective rights for minorities. At a stroke, this annulled the inclusion of Council of Europe Recommendation 1201 which had seemed such a positive step in Paris a year earlier. Hungary took the line that it was the original text of the treaty that had been ratified and that the riders had no value in international law. Budapest had a difficult choice between accepting a flawed ratification, or denouncing the amended treaty and starting negotiations again. Opposition parties called for resolute action and Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs sent a note of protest to Bratislava, saying that the treaty, now ratified, must be implemented in its full original version. Following a review by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian Parliament, the Foreign Ministry announced that it was inconceivable for the Slovak side to ratify the treaty with the addenda. It seems unlikely however that the Slovak side will review the treaty in the near future. By ratifying an amended treaty, Prime Minister Meciar has fulfilled an international obligation while simultaneously satisfying his domestic allies. A meeting in April 1996 between Csaba Tabajdi, in charge of the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities Abroad at the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office, and ethnic Hungarian deputies from Slovakia, concluded that there was little prospect of the Language Law being amended, and that the basic treaty had even had a harmful effect on Slovakia’s policy towards its ethnic Hungarian minority. 1. The Case of RomaniaIntroductionIn Romania, several factors have combined to put ethnic Hungarians in an unusually disadvantageous position as a national minority. Firstly, the pre-1920 Hungarian borders included a large part of what is now Romania. This has made it easy for Romanian nationalist politicians to play on a fear of Hungarian irredentism, because, were the pre-1920 boundaries ever to be restored, Romania s current territory would be reduced by more than half. Secondly, because of the extent of former Hungarian lands now in Romania, the size of the ethnic Hungarian minority is considerable, usually reckoned at something approaching 2,000,000 . But rather than providing strength in numbers the size of the minority has tended to work against its members, as it has served to increase official Romanian suspicions. With such large minorities, successive Romanian governments have been doubly uncomfortable about the minorities issue.There were initial hopes that the overthrow of Ceausescu would improve minority relations in Romania. The Calvinist priest Laszlo Tokes, whose harassment by Securitate agents in the western Romanian city of Timisoara sparked the December 1989 events, was after all an ethnic Hungarian himself. But the election of post-Communist governments in both countries which were, to a greater or lesser extent, nationalist meant that minority issues came to be discussed at a bilateral level in a climate of mutual suspicion. The Magyar Demokrata Forum (MDF – Hungarian Democratic Forum) government of Joszef Antall in Hungary soon concluded that there was little essential change of position between the pre- and post-Ceausescu line on Romania’s ethnic Hungarians. The Romanians, for their part, continued to see Budapest politicians as the ones responsible for disturbing ethnic harmony within Romania. In August 1992, Antall said that he wished to be Prime Minister “emotionally as well as spiritually” for 15 million Hungarians, a figure that included the ethnic Hungarian populations in surrounding countries. This was not the first time that Antall had made such an assertion, but it was the best-publicised instance and consequently attracted the most condemnation from Hungary’s neighbours. At the same time, Hungarian Foreign Minister Geza Jeszenszky stressed that his government could make no agreements or treaties with neighbouring countries “over the heads” of the ethnic Hungarian minorities there. To Romania, such statements sounded like unwarranted interference in the country’s internal affairs. Towards a basic TreatyThe socialist-led government of Prime Minister Gyula Horn which took power in Hungary in July 1994 was widely seen as being more accommodating towards the Romanian authorities, and more determined to conclude a basic treaty between the two countries. Meanwhile Romania came under increasing pressure from the European Union and the Council of Europe to improve rights for its ethnic Hungarian minority, specifically as mandated by the Council of Europe Recommendation 1201, which was adopted by the Council of Europe s Parliamentary assembly on 1st of February 1993. It is worth noting that Recommendation 1201 was included in the Slovak-Hungarian Treaty signed in March 1995, which may have accounted for the renewed Council of Europe focus on this point in the case of Romania. Human rights rubbed in the dirtAs the Romanian Government developed and passed the new Education Law in June 1995, Hungarian minorities started to protest against it. The law gave primacy to education in the Romanian language throughout the country and throughout the education system. This, according to RMDS leader Bela Marko, implied a policy of, because if carried out to the letter the new law would require Romanian-language schools to be established even in villages with an entirely ethnic-Hungarian population. According to official Romanian statistics, 5.4 per cent of school students study in minority languages, with 209,131 (about 5 per cent) studying in Hungarian. The ethnic Hungarian community forms about 9 per cent of the total population. As the start of school year (15 September 1995) approached, several demonstrations were held to protest against the new law. Ethnic Hungarian leaders claimed that in many cases the new law prevented students pursuing higher education in the Hungarian language, as many subjects would only be offered in Romanian and all university entrance examinations would be conducted in Romanian. In addition to this the Romanian Government approved a law, that supported the banning of foreign (Hungarian) national symbols and the singing of foreign national anthems, a measure fully supported by the Romanian nationalist elements and apparently aimed mainly at the hampering Hungarian nationalist demonstrations. These two acts were hardly criticised both by the European Council and the Hungarian Government. In November 1995, inter-governmental talks on the Hungarian-Romanian basic treaty reopened in Budapest, this was the first direct contact after the introduction of the new laws of Romania. There had been a four month interval since last meeting, when Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs had been in Bucharest. However, this meeting in November was at a lower level, involving Secretaries rather than ministers. The sides were resolute and no significant process was made. It became clear that without international Pressure there will be no basic treaty signed in the near future between the two countries. International PressureIn January 1996, Max van der Stoel, OSCE High Commissioner for Ethnic Minorities, visited Bucharest, and also went to schools in Brasov and Covasna counties. He said that although the Education Law was in compliance with fundamental European legal norms, he feared that the spirit of the law might not be well applied. Mayor of Cluj Gheorghe Funar dismissed Mr. van der Stoel as a RMDS lawyer, and said that given his old age and state of health he should not be expected to live much longer. For his part, President Iliescu maintained that ethnic Hungarians in Romania had no difficulty leading a full cultural life, based on mutual regard and solidarity. In 13 February 1996, bilateral talks resumed, this time in Bucharest, with the brief participation of Richard Holbrooke, the US mediator in Bosnia. He urged both sides not to become “obsessed with real or imagined and often exaggerated historical grievances”. Romania stated that they were continuing to pursue two-track discussions, on both a basic treaty and the “historic reconciliation”. Hungarian officials acknowledged that there was now a dual process, and said that separate talks would now be held on each issue. And, despite RMDS pressure, Hungary agreed that minority representatives would have no place at the future talks (such groups had not enjoyed such a role previously). However, Hungary stated that there was no absolute need for the two countries to co-ordinate their membership bids for NATO. This brought a swift response from Romania, who said that a new demarcation line between Hungary and Romania during the expansion of NATO would upset the security balance of Central Europe. Future ConsiderationsThere is no sign of any advance in Hungarian-Romanian talks. The Hungarian Government has not been distracted by President Iliescu’s “historic reconciliation” plan and continues to press for specific minority rights guarantees in the basic treaty. Meanwhile, in Romania, the Education Law is still in place and points of tension remain between the ethnic Hungarian community and the Romanian authorities. Ethnic Romanians from Harghita, Covasna and Mures counties have complained to President Iliescu that they were “ethnically cleansed” by local ethnic Hungarians after the December 1989 overthrow of Ceausescu. This theme has been a common strand of anti-Hungarian sentiment, as evidenced for example in an inflammatory book, “Romanians Hunted Down In Their Own Country”, which is distributed by the Romanian Government Information Department. Ethnic Hungarians were suspicious at the deployment of additional troops in Covasna and Harghita counties, although the Romanian Defence Ministry said the move was purely operational and not related to any ethnic issue. In April 1996, several drunken ethnic Hungarians attacked an ethnic Romanian policeman in the town of Odorheiu Secuiesc. The policeman subsequently died from his injuries. Local people denied the attack was ethnically motivated and said it was simply a criminal act. Although the Education Law remains in force, there have been some hopeful cultural initiatives in the field of the media. A new radio station in Tirgu Secuiesc went on the air in August 1995, with 75 per cent Hungarian-language programming. This is the first radio station in Romania to broadcast the majority of its programmes in Hungarian. And in April 1996, a new private television station, broadcasting half in Romanian and half in Hungarian, started broadcasting in Tirgu Mures, with the declared aim of building bridges between the two communities. Proposal for the Hungarian GovernmentThe fundamental goal of the Hungarian Government s regional policy has to be the reinforcement of stability in the region. The Government will have to raise co-operation amongst Central-Eastern European countries in order to keep the basic treaties working. The way of increasing communication and co-operation amongst the neighbouring countries, Romania and Slovakia in particular, is to improve economic ties between Hungary and these countries. Economic ties will help to reduce the ethnic tensions and the dislike of Hungarians, which partly arose from the different dates at which the countries in the region will become NATO and/or European Union members. The key to estabilish a strong international economic tie between Romania, Slovakia and Hungary lies in the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). The countries involved in this agreement should pay attention to their investment policies. The mutual co-operation between countries would not only improve the situation of ethnic minorities, but would help to enable the Eastern European countries, to live up to the standards of the European Community in a shorter period of time. However, the two organisations that all Central and Eastern European states most aspire to join – the European Union and NATO – are not primarily concerned with ethnic minority issues. Their main criteria for admission are economic fitness and geopolitical stability. This, means that neither body is likely to make ethnic minority rights an absolute criterion for membership, although of course they may stress the desirability of good ethnic relations. This criteria opens the way for long-term planning and solutions.This criterion also has key importance, in a short term it might hinder the negotiations further, between Hungary and its neighbours, concerning minority issues. The Hungarian government is forced to make a choice between its ethnic population living abroad and the application for the European Union. The choice had been made when Hungary rejected the principle of a joint application process to the European Union, as the country sees itself, as being further along the road to membership. The recent years of economic growth in Hungary enabled the country to fully use its economic power and influence to improve the economy and living standards on one hand, and to fulfil the economic criterions for the European Union on the other. For now and the coming few years, this leaves the country with only words in the process of fighting for the rights of minorities. I personally see this as the best possible preparation for improving the situation of ethnic Hungarians living abroad. The influence and the power of the Hungarian Government will increase dramatically once Hungary is part of EU. The minority issue will be no longer based on historical concepts, nor mutual dislike, but will be the protection of a nation thats part of the United Europe. ConclusionWith the exception of Ukraine, rights for the ethnic Hungarian minorities in all the countries under consideration in this paper have worsened in years after the end of the Cold War. In Slovakia and Romania, specific laws dealing with language rights, education and territorial administration have demonstrably worsened the position of the ethnic Hungarian community. In Vojvodina, the aftermath of the Yugoslav War, the resettlement of ethnic Serb refugees in the area and the nationalist make-up of the government in Belgrade have made an improvement in ethnic rights unlikely, and a return to the old autonomous status of Vojvodina unthinkable in the near future. The Slovak ratification of the treaty with Hungary is perhaps the most disturbing trend, both for Hungary itself and for Europe as a whole. Slovakia took an entire year to ratify the treaty, and when it finally did so, it refused to acknowledge the clause most vital to ethnic Hungarian rights and good bilateral relations. Slovakia did this despite being a Council of Europe member, and despite receiving a number of warnings from respected international bodies. There are no signs of the present Slovak Government modifying its position. And with elections due in Romania at the end of the year, the Romanian-Hungarian treaty is unlikely to make progress in the near future. On the Hungarian side, the government of Prime Minister Gyula Horn has been forced to concern itself mainly with domestic economic issues, and has pulled away from the high profile stance on ethnic Hungarians abroad which was the hallmark of the first post-Communist government. While not abandoning the ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring countries altogether, Prime Minister Horn seems more concerned to make bilateral progress with the country s neighbours despite existing ethnic problems, but also to make independent Hungarian advances in Western Europe. Nonetheless, the manner in which Vladimir Meciar, “a man of his word” according to Gyula Horn, ratified the Slovak-Hungarian treaty must have been a severe blow and leaves Hungary handicapped and outmanoeuvred in its relations with Slovakia. The pressure from bodies such as the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the European Parliament, may be too weak to effect immediate legal changes, but it will be vital to monitoring the ethnic Hungarian issue in a time of political volatility, and maintain an international focus on minority rights.