OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 42, Part II, 28 February 1996

TROUBLED SLOVAK-EU RELATIONS. EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van
den Broek, attending the Slovak-EU Association Council session in
Brussels on 27 February, called on Slovakia "to further develop and
strengthen democratic institutions and to respect ethnic minority rights
and freedom of speech." Van den Broek expressed the hope that Slovakia
will soon ratify the Slovak-Hungarian treaty and pass a law on minority
languages. He also asked that Slovakia cancel its 10% import surcharge
by 30 June, show more openness toward foreign investment, close unsafe
nuclear reactors, and harmonize its legislation with that of the EU.
Foreign Minister Juraj Schenk, who led the Slovak delegation, called the
meeting "a breakthrough" in bilateral relations, stressing that no one
questioned Slovakia's domestic political path or discussed its internal
instability, TASR reported. -- Sharon Fisher

FORMER HUNGARIAN FINANCE MINISTER WILL NOT RECEIVE SEVERANCE PAY. The
Supreme Court has ruled that outgoing Finance Minister Lajos Bokros is
entitled to six months' salary--over 1 million forints ($7,000)--but no
severance pay, Hungarian dailies reported on 28 February. The Prime
Minister's Office had asked the Supreme Court to clarify which rules
should apply to the legal status of ministers, since the relevant law
dates back to 1973. None of the six ministers who quit in 1995 received
severance pay, because they all stayed on as deputies. Reports that
Bokros was about to get 2 million forints in severance drew heated
debates in the parliament earlier this week. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENT ELECTS MEDIA ORGANS. The Hungarian parliament on 27
February elected Socialist Party member Mihaly Tamas Revesz as chairman
of the National Radio and Television Board (NRTB), Hungarian media
reported. Deputies also elected chairmen of the Board of Trustees of the
Hungarian Radio Foundation, Hungarian Television (MTV), and Hungaria
Television. The most controversial member elected to the NRTB was Gabor
Nahlik, the candidate of the opposition Smallholders, who was appointed
acting chairman of MTV in 1993 by Jozsef Antall's government and who
played a prominent role in the so-called media war. In other news, the
parliament amended the banking law to allow tax customs and social
insurance authorities to gain access to bank data under certain
circumstances. This was a prerequisite for OECD membership. -- Zsofia
Szilagyi

..BUT U.S. WARNS THAT SANCTIONS AGAINST SERBIA MAY NOT BE LIFTED. The
U.S. government has warned Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic that
international sanctions against the rump Yugoslavia will stay in place
if the Belgrade regime continues its crackdown on independent media and
humanitarian organizations, international media reported on 27 February.
U.S. government spokesman Glyn Davies said that "Milosevic has to
understand that he's not operating in a vacuum.... The Dayton Accord
calls for certain standards in human rights and we're going to hold
[Belgrade] to it." -- Stan Markotich
MOST EE FOREIGN MINISTERS BACK EU ARMS EMBARGO. East European foreign
ministers, meeting with their EU counterparts in Brussels on 27
February, discussed the EU arms embargo on Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia,
international media reported. Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania,
Romania, and Slovakia immediately endorsed the embargo. Poland, the
Czech Republic, Albania, and Bulgaria weclomed the idea but said they
needed to consult with their governments before adopting the measure.
They cited a "lack of precision" in the requirement that countries "show
restraint" in selling arms to Slovenia and Macedonia, Rzeczpospolita
reported. -- Michael Mihalka

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave