The government-appointed committee to study the mode for establishing a Hungarian-language university will hold its first meeting in the Office of the Minister for Minority Affairs. The October 15 deadline to prepare our final report is quite tight, said Minority Minister György Tokay to the Hungarian Telegraph Agency (MTI). The 12-member committee is equally divided between ethnic Hungarian and Rumanian professionals. In response to questions on the status of the return of properties confiscated from minority communities, Minister Tokay reported that the relevant committee met last week and resolved a few outstanding issues. [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár), Aug. 29, 1998]
Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania President Béla Markó hosted a working lunch for OSCE High Commissioner for Minorities Max van der Stoel, also attended by OSCE Advisor John Packer and Rumanian State Secretary Anton Niculescu of the European Integration Office. President Markó will receive Ambassador van der Stoel at the Alliance's headquarters on September 1 as part of his official visit to Rumania. [DAHR Bulletin (Bucharest), Aug. 31, 1998]
Participants of the two-day Harghita-Bai/Hargitafürdô economic conference sponsored by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania held a closing press conference in the Miercurea Ciuc/Csíkszereda Mayor's Office. The participants had debated the necessity of reorganizing the government's internal structure, deeming it a priority before next year's budget is finalized. The participating government officials, members of parliamentary committees, and DAHR's economic experts examined, among others the macro economy, restructuring the economic sphere, privatization, labor reform and development of agriculture, infrastructure, small and medium-sized businesses within the context of the Alliance's economic program and the governing coalition's program. With the exception of Adevarul, few Rumanian papers reported extensively on the conference. [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár); DAHR News Observer (Bucharest), Aug. 31, 1998]
Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania President Béla Markó criticized the governing coalition's unsatisfactory, in fact, disappointing performance at his press conference in Bucharest. The politician added that at the time of the November 1996 election victory, every objective condition existed to make radical changes, but these did not happen. Markó attributed the failure to the coalition's weakness which arises out of its members continued "election campaign behavior,'' competition with each other. The president also stated that he finds it unacceptable that no concrete measures have been taken following Rumanian secret service Captain Constantin Alexa's recent slander of the Alliance on the pages of Cotidianul, either against the individual or the SRI (Rumanian Intelligence Service) in general. [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár); DAHR News Observer (Bucharest), Aug. 28, 1998]
Due to the initiative of a parent in the small village of Frata/Magyarfráta, a combined grades I-IV Hungarian-language class will begin this fall in the local school as to avoid the 60 kilometer trip children were taking to the next closest school in Ludas, told Szabadság reporters Deputy Superintendent of Schools for Cluj/Kolozs County Ferenc Török. [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár), Aug. 28, 1998]
Adevarul reported that the government approved 500 million Lei for the operating costs of the committee to study the mode for establishing a Hungarian-language university which include the 12-member committee and its secretary's travel and other expenses, in addition to fees for the preparation of reports by financial, sociological and other experts. [DAHR News Observer (Bucharest), Aug. 28, 1998]
During his Transylvanian tour, Rumanian Social Democracy Party President Ion Iliescu told Rompress that he exhorts the Rumanian government to "be firm and prevent the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania (DAHR) from pursuing its anti-national and anti-Rumanian policies and to prevent Hungary from interfering in Rumanian's internal affairs.'' [Szabadság (Cluj/Kolozsvár), Aug. 31, 1998]
Pál Szilágyi, Deputy Rector responsible for Hungarian-language education at the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj/Kolozsvár stated in an interview to the Romániai Magyar Szó that currently 800 openings are available for students wishing to pursue studies in Hungarian at the university. However, due to the resistance of the Department of Law, a section for Hungarian-language legal studies could unfortunately not be established but the Ministry of Education continues to guarantee 50 openings for Hungarian speakers nevertheless. In addition, the Department of Economics has pledged to commence a Hungarian-language section "should there be enough qualifying candidates,'' said Szilágyi. The university's ethnic Hungarian teachers have asked its senate, the Rumanian government as well as the country's president "to adopt a law endorsing the Hungarian Department at the university" and endowing it with a specific structure and mandate, continued Szilágyi. [DAHR News Observer (Bucharest), Aug. 26, 1998]
In reply to Democratic Party Vice President Bogdan Niculescu-Duvaz's assertion that the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania (DAHR) does not participate vigorously enough as a member of the governing coalition, DAHR Vice President for Economic Affairs Pál Péter outlined some of the numerous steps the organization has taken in this regard. For example, the Alliance has drafted and submitted to Parliament several public interest bills such as the one supporting small and middle-sized businesses, economic reform as well as amendment of the tax system. In addition, the Alliance has expressed its dissatisfaction with the pace of privatization and restructuring of economic monopolies, and is in fact organizing an economic conference with the participation of experts in Harghita-Bai/Hargitafürdô Aug. 29-30. [DAHR News Observer (Bucharest), Aug. 26, 1998]
In a vote of 102-0 with 4 abstentions, the Senate adopted the Local Budget Law, according to which local councils will directly receive 50, and county councils 10 percent of income tax monies. [DAHR News Observer (Bucharest), Aug. 27, 1998]
In the Curentul's opinion column George Arun addressed the issue of the independent Hungarian-language university noting that the government coalition partners promised the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania (DAHR) a legal framework for establishing the university and subsequently reneged on their word "either to seek election advantage or because they knew they wouldn't keep their word from the beginning.'' Arun places the issue in the broader context of Rumanian-Hungarian reconciliation and quotes DAHR President Béla Markó who has stated that the real problem is one of approach to the issue, ''Rumanian-Hungarian domestic relations and the bilateral one between the two countries, the situation of minorities, and clarification of the national identity.'' [DAHR News Observer (Bucharest), Aug. 24, 1998]
Unknown suspects spray painted the bilingual place signs of the villages of Lörincfalva, Lukafalva and Illencfalva (in the township Gheorghe Doja/Dózsa György, Mures/Maros County) in the Rumanian national colors of red-yellow-blue while the one in Ganesti/Vámosgalfalva was painted over on Aug. 22. [Népújság (Tirgu Mures/Marosvásárhely), Aug. 26, 1998]