Among other topics, EU-related political issues were also discussed at the meeting of Hungarian Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér and his Slovak counterpart Robert Kalinák, who also serves as Deputy-Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic.

At their press conference, Robert Kalinák praised the cooperation between the countries' two police forces, adding that the cooperation has recently enabled them to take effective steps against organized crime and tax evasion.

He also mentioned that they had also discussed EU-related topics such as the Danube strategy and how to acquire more funding for the two Ministries of Interior.

He pointed out the importance of the cooperation between the disaster management organizations of the two countries, emphasising the speed and coordination of communication.

Minister Pintér added: they discussed the 2014-2020 EU budget with relation to interior politics and also touched upon the topic of the battle against illegal migration and organized crime. In connection with the latter, they decided to set up joint investigative teams.

Concerning cooperation between disaster management organizations, Minister Pintér explained that they had worked on defining their shared tasks with an emphasis on the Sajó and Hernád valleys.

In replay to a question from the press, Robert Kalinák said that there have been experts in the Slovak Police Force who are familiar with the Roma communities and speak their language for years. There are about 300 of them at the moment. According to the Minister, the number of car thefts and holiday home break-ins has decreased in the past eight years.

Minister Pintér said that Hungary play a leading role when it comes to solving the issue of the Roma people. As an example, he mentioned that Hungarian Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog had introduced a Roma programme that was accepted by the European Union. The aim of the programme is for Roma people to become as useful members of society as anyone else.

He emphasized that the police do not differentiate between Roma and non-Roma criminals. They also do not differentiate when it comes to applications to join the police force. Efforts have been made to increase the number of Roma police officers with diplomas and may serve at higher ranks, once they are admitted there is no Roma or non-Roma, there are only police officers, he stated.

In case of crimes in which Romany criminals are involved, it is compulsory for the police to contact Roma self-government, he added. 

(MTI, Ministry of Interior)