No minutes were signed at the Hungarian-Slovakian minority joint committee meeting in Bratislava on Wednesday, as it failed to reach agreement on several decisive questions, the head of the Hungarian delegation revealed.

“Unfortunately the meeting was closed without any results (…), since there are some cardinal issues on which we could not agree”, Zsuzsanna Répás, Deputy State Secretary for National Policy, said after the consultations. Her Slovakian negotiating partner, Miroslav Mojzita – the Ambassador of Slovakia to Bosnia and Herzegovina – on the other hand said that they did important and valuable work, and managed to update several tasks.

After the meeting, the head of the Hungarian delegation commented that they have recently regretted to experience the adoption of a series of measures in Slovakia which essentially have a negative impact on the advocacy options of Hungarians living in Slovakia. “These measures no longer allow for maintaining the status quo that Prime Minister Robert Fico promised at the start of his term”, Zsuzsanna Répás underscored.

As an example of the disputed measures in which reaching an understanding proved impossible, she raised – among others – the amendment of Slovakia’s Act on Public Education, which may result in the mass closing of Hungarian primary schools in Slovakia.

She also pointed out changes in the minority committee attached to the Government Office of Slovakia. Namely the fact that the voting weight of the Hungarian minority was reduced in this body, so that in the future, the representatives of the Hungarian minority – which makes up for seventy per cent of all minorities in Slovakia – will also only have a single vote, exactly as much as other minorities which may account for but a few thousand people.
Zsuzsanna Répássy also mentioned that the Slovakian Government decided to reject a decision, confirmed by a referendum, by the residents of Tesedíkovo (Pered) whereby they wish to reinstate the historical Hungarian name of their town as its official designation.

According to Miroslav Mojzita, the “debate was without doubt heated” during the consultation. Yet it is also a fact that the parties established that both parties are complying with the recommendations articulated in the minutes of negotiations signed one year ago. The joint committee acts as an advisory body to both countries’ governments, and the meeting “was not superfluous, rather very meaningful” from that perspective, since almost all issues were discussed, he emphasised. Citing the rejection of the outcome of the referendum in Pered as an example, he added that “the Slovakian party believes this matter is not in scope for the minority joint committee’s powers. The Government had the lawful right to reject the outcome of the referendum”, he declared.

According to information from the heads of the Hungarian and Slovakian delegation, unresolved issues will be the starting topics for the next meeting, and they both hope to see progress in several matters until then.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)