RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 2, No. 155, 13 August 1998

BUDAPEST PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE LAUNCHES FRAUD INVESTIGATION.
Following press allegations of fraud among members of the
ruling Federation of Young Democrats- Hungarian Civic Party
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 and 12 August 1998), Deputy
Budapest Prosecutor Gyorgy Agai on 12 August told Kossuth
Radio that an investigation has been launched. Agai said the
Company Registration Court has been asked to check the
legality of the companies involved in the scandal. He added
that if the court concludes those companies were registered
by using stolen documents, the people involved will be
charged with forgery. MS

SMALLHOLDERS WARN AGAINST 'CHANCELLOR-STYLE' RULE. The
parliamentary group of the junior coalition partner, the
Independent Smallholders' Party (FKGP), has warned against
"chancellor-style" rule, whereby important question are
decided by the premier alone. To avoid tensions in the
coalition, the premier must consult with coalition partners
before making important decisions, the FKGP says. MS

ROMANIA, HUNGARY FAIL TO REACH AGREEMENT ON WHEAT TAX. Two
Hungarian officials on 12 August failed to reach an agreement
with their Romanian counterparts in Bucharest on the import
duties recently imposed on wheat and flour from Hungary (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 11 August 1998). Romania says the duties--
15-25 percent on wheat imports and 45 percent on flour--are
in line with Article 14 of the CEFTA agreements and will be
in force until 31 December 1998. Hungary argues that the
CEFTA agreements call for consultations before such measures
are imposed, a condition that Bucharest failed to meet. Both
sides agreed to continue negotiations at the next CEFTA
meeting of agricultural ministers in Prague on 24-25 August.
Mihaly Gyorgy of the Hungarian Ministry of Economy said it is
"premature" to discuss Hungarian countermeasures ahead of the
Prague talks, Romanian and Hungarian media reported. MS

ROMANIAN PRESIDENT DENIES KNOWLEDGE OF SRI FILE ON FORMER
MINISTER. The presidential office on 12 August denied
allegations earlier this week by a former employee of the
Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) that the presidential
office has received information about the SRI file of former
Health Minister Francisc Barany. Barany resigned after former
SRI official Constantin Alexa leaked to the press Barany's
pledge to act as a communist secret police informer in the
1950s. Alexa, who was dismissed for having acted unlawfully,
claimed in an interview with the daily "Cotidianul" on 10
August that Baranyi's SRI file shows him as having acted
against Romania's "national interest and security" after the
overthrow of the communist regime and of having had links to
Hungarian "separatists" in Transylvania and Hungarian
intelligence. Alexa says he passed on this information to his
superiors, who, he claims, must have forwarded it to the
presidential office. MS

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