Informal meeting with the Hungarian President László Sólyom
Ljubljana, 11/16/2005 | press release
The President of the Republic, Dr Janez Drnovšek, today met with the President of the Republic of Hungary, Mr László Sólyom, in Lendava, Slovenia.
In their discussion, Dr Drnovšek and his guest described relations between Hungary and Slovenia as good. They devoted considerable attention to the status of ethnic communities in both countries. European issues were also discussed at the meeting and it has been agreed that the ratification process of the European Constitutional Treaty should continue. They also talked about Dr Drnovšek’s proposals to the presidents of the EU member states about the reform of the European Union, and touched upon the situation in the Western Balkans emphasising the need for the opening of the European perspective for the countries of this region.
After the meeting Dr Drnovšek made the following statement (unedited version):
We agreed to hold this meeting at the Summit of Central European Presidents in Zagreb where we established very good communication, with which we continue today – thus preserving the tradition in relations between Hungary and Slovenia that started with Slovenia’s independence. Political ties are excellent, economic relations good, but there is always room for improvement. As is customary on such occasions, we also talked about the status of our ethnic communities in our respective countries, Slovenian ethnic community in Hungary, in the Raba region, and the Hungarian ethnic community in Slovenia. Despite good institutional protection, the communities tend to decline in numbers; a universal tendency to assimilate has been observed everywhere, the majority ethnic community somehow assimilates the minority ethnic communities. This is also true of the Slovenian community in Austria, for example, in Italy or for the Italian community in Slovenia, Hungarian community in Slovenia or Slovenian community in Hungary. So we agreed that we should pay more attention to this and at an entirely concrete level take steps, adopt instruments which would enable ethnic communities to express and educate themselves, and communicate in their mother tongue. We also discussed some concrete questions raised by the two ethnic communities.
Dr Drnovšek and Mr Sólyom visited the branch office of the Institute for Ethnic Studies in Lendava.