RFE/RL NEWSLINE 
Vol. 1, No. 164, 20 November 1997

HUNGARIAN SCREENING PANEL CALLS FOR SPEAKER'S RESIGNATION.
A panel of judges investigating the communist past of Hungarian top
officials has called on parliamentary speaker Zoltan Gal to resign
within 30 days. If he does not comply, his activities under the
communist regime will be made public. The panel found that Gal
received information from the notorious III/III domestic secret
service while serving as deputy interior minister from December
1987, as state secretary from May 1989, and as acting interior
minister from January 1990, Hungarian media reported. Gal has
refused to resign, saying the ruling does not contain anything about
which the public is not already aware. He added that he was twice
elected to the parliament, although the country knew about his past.
MSZ

HUNGARY, CROATIA TO IMPROVE ECONOMIC COOPERATION.
Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn and his visiting Croatian
counterpart, Zlatko Matesa, agreed in Budapest on 19 November to
step up economic cooperation. Horn expressed dissatisfaction with
the small number of Hungarian companies involved in Croatia's
privatization process and infrastructure development. He also said
Budapest has a strong interest in using the port of Rijeka and in
building a Rijeka-Zagreb-Budapest highway. Matesa told reporters
that war refugees in Hungary can return to Croatia next summer.
MSZ

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