The Hungarian Government welcomes the fact that, after consultations between the representatives of the Serbian Government and those of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and in accordance with their agreement, the Serbian National Assembly on the 5th of December has adopted the Act on Rehabilitation.

Relevant provisions of this Act stipulate the scrutiny of individual responsibility as legal basis for exclusion from the property restitution and compensation process, thus annulling any legal grounds for a possible application of the principle of collective guilt. The Hungarian Government is of the view that the Act on Rehabilitation, through its pertinent provisions and through a direct reference to the Act on Property Restitution and Compensation, is an appropriate means to address concerns caused by the latter Act.

The Hungarian Government will closely follow the property restitution and compensation process in Serbia, and sincerely hopes that it will be carried out in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner, as recommended in the Opinion of the European Commission of 12 October 2011.

The Hungarian Government considers that after the adoption of the Act on Rehabilitation, and in accordance with the consistent Hungarian position to support Serbia’s European integration, Hungary will be in the position to support a decision to grant EU candidate status to Serbia at the 9 December meeting of the European Council.

Budapest, 5 October 2011

Zsolt Semjén
Deputy Prime Minister

Zsolt Németh
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs

(Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs)