OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 105, 31 May 1995

SLOVAKIA' S MINORITIES ON FUNDING FOR CULTURE. Coexistence Deputy
Chairman Arpad Duka-Zolyomi, at a press conference on 30 May, said
Slovakia lacks a concept for minority policy and that decisions are made
on an " ad hoc"  basis. He stressed that a constitutional law on the
position of minorities should be approved. Duka-Zolyomi criticized in
particular a minority issues publication that first appeared on 30 May
as a bi-weekly supplement to the pro-government daily Slovenska
Republika. He called it " absurd"  that of the 58 million koruny in
state subsidies to support periodical and non-periodical press for
minorities, the Ministry of Culture has committed 27.7 million koruny to
finance the supplement. The Hungarian Civic Party (MOS) also expressed
concern about the move, calling it " a violation of the state budget
law."  According to the MOS, the decision was made without consulting
minorities. -- Sharon Fisher , OMRI, Inc.

HUNGARIAN TV EMPLOYEES TO STRIKE. Employees of Hungarian Television on
30 May announced plans for a one-day strike to protest the government' s
intention to privatize one of the two national channels, Hungarian media
reported. A date for the strike has not yet been set. TV employees argue
that selling the second channel would trigger extensive layoffs and
compromise the public service character of state TV. Hungarian Radio and
TV are still controlled by the government in accordance with a 1974
decree. The country' s six parliamentary parties have been unable to
agree on a post-communist media law paving the way for new nationwide
channels. -- Jiri Pehe, OMRI, Inc.

CONTINUED ATTACKS ON HUNGARIAN MINORITY PARTY IN ROMANIA. The Party of
Romanian National Unity (PUNR), in a press release carried by Radio
Bucharest on 30 May, called for outlawing the Hungarian Democratic
Federation of Romania (UDMR). PUNR leader Gheorghe Funar also said the
parliament should discuss UDMR activities since December 1989 and lift
the immunity of the party' s parliamentarians. The PUNR has repeatedly
urged that the UDMR be banned, but the latest attack comes in the wake
of the party' s recent congress (see OMRI Daily Digest, 29 and 30 May
1995). The PUNR also says Romania' s position on the bilateral treaty
with Hungary should be reviewed in light of the UDMR' s congress and
Hungary' s possible affiliation with NATO " ahead of Romania."  Deputies
from both the ruling and opposition parties on 30 May criticized the
UDMR in the Chamber of Deputies, with several speakers demanding that
the party be outlawed. -- Michael Shafir , OMRI, Inc.

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave

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Wednesday, 31 May 1995
Volume 2, Issue 105

REGIONAL NEWS
-------------

**HUNGARY PASSES HARSH ECONOMIC MEASURES**
  Hungary's Parliament approved the government's controversial
  austerity plan last night.  The legislation dismantles key
  parts of the country's cradle to grave welfare system in an
  effort to slash Hungary's budget deficit.  The austerity
  package is supposed to reduce the government's budget
  shortfall from 5.4 percent of the gross domestic product to
  about 3 percent.  The International Monetary Fund said that's
  an important first step toward getting Hungary's economy in
  shape and helping pave the way for stand by loans later this
  year.  Under the austerity plan, government workers will be
  laid off, royalties on intellectual products will be taxed,
  Hungarian students will have to pay college tuition, and
  there'll be means testing for government child support
  payments.  After public protests, the government decided to
  continue automatic payments for families with 3 or more
  children and adjust the way income eligibility is determined
  for smaller families.  Finance Ministry State Secretary Laszlo
  Akar claimed the austerity plan won't hurt the poor.

  "We are concentrating on the richest part in the measures.  For
  example, the whole story of the family allowance, is that 80
  percent, roughly of the earlier families, that is the
  relatively poorer part, will get the same family allowance in
  the future.  The intention is to eliminate the upper 20
  percent of family allowance because, we think at the moment,
  at the level of GDP we cannot afford it."

  Opposition MPs agreed.  But they added that cuts included in
  the austerity plan fall heavily on the poor.  Laszlo Bogar is
  a Member of Parliament for the conservative Hungarian
  Democratic Forum.  He said the austerity measures will cause
  social tensions which have a price too.

  "Its very difficult to say exactly the price in forints, the
  forint price of the strikes and manifestations and social
  tensions, etc.  But it too is a cost of this process."

  Bogar said the government should focus its deficit cutting
  efforts on reducing debt repayments.  He said without those
  payments, Hungary would actually have a budget surplus.  But
  since it controls nearly three fourths of the seats in
  Parliament, the government's economic policies aren't likely
  to be seriously challenged. --David Fink



BUSINESS NEWS
-------------

**HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT WANTS TO INFLATE GAS PROFITS**
  Hungary's state holding company said the country should delay
  privatizing its five regional gas suppliers until the adoption
  of a new pricing policy that would help the suppliers turn a
  profit.  The government is due to discuss the proposal next
  week.  Right now, suppliers have to buy natural gas from the
  national oil and gas company MOL and sell at state-controlled
  prices.


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date=5/25/95
      type=current affairs feature
    number=3-22061
     title=Central European University
    byline=Judith Latham
 telephone=619-3464
  dateline=Washington
    editor=Rich Kleinfeldt

Content = (tape cuts in audio services)

Intro:   The Central European University is a new concept in
         education. It was established in 1991 by
         Hungarian-American financier and philanthropist George
         Soros.  His goal was to establish a model for the
         development of open, pluralistic, and democratic
         institutions in former communist countries.  With two
         campuses in Budapest and Prague, Central European
         University was to become a prototype for an open system
         of education in Eastern-Central Europe and the former
         Soviet Union.  With details here's VoA's _____ .

Text:    For graduate students in formerly communist countries,
         the school can offer a new and different approach to
         education, an opportunity to critically examine
         different ideas in a comparative, rather than a
         national, context.  Anne Lonsdale, secretary-general of
         Central European University explains.

Tape:    cut one -- Lonsdale (0:26)

         "The mission is to teach at the Master's level and Ph.D.
         level students from all parts of the region of
         Central-Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, to
         bring together the talented young people from all those
         countries to study together and to look primarily at the
         subjects that were not taught at all, or were taught
         rather ideologically, shall we say, in the last 40 to 70
         years in this region."

Text:    Dr. Lonsdale says that the degree programs at Central
         European University resemble graduate-level study in the
         United States.

Tape:    cut two -- Lonsdale (0:38)

         "The students come to us after their first degree.
         Within the region the first degree is after four or five
         years and is by West European standards around a
         Master's level already, but usually in a much narrower
         discipline than the ones we teach.  We take them up to
         Master's level -- M.A., L.L.M., M.Sc., Whatever -- and
         we're beginning in some departments to move on to the
         Ph.D. Stage. (Opt) This is beginning, particularly in
         medieval studies at the moment, in law, and in
         international relations. (End opt) Those Ph.D.'s will be
         closer to a European Ph.D. than an American Ph.D."

Text:    There are plans to expand course offerings on the
         campuses of Central European University in Budapest and
         Prague.  Beginning with the 1995-96 academic year, Dr.
         Lonsdale says, the college in Budapest will offer
         graduate level programs in six departments -- history,
         medieval studies, legal studies, political science,
         environmental science, and economics.  And, the college
         in Prague will offer programs in art history and
         international relations.

Tape:    cut three -- Lonsdale (0:23)

         "We started with a very standard West-European-style
         European studies program, and we found that the needs of
         our students were far wider than that.  And we widened
         it out to an international relations program, dealing
         also with the issues of ethnic conflict, of migration,
         of all the border and regionalization issues, which are
         particularly important in this part of the world."

Text:    According to Alfred Stepan, rector of Central European
         University, students can explore concepts of nationalism
         and the nation-state.  For many, it offers a different
         perspective in their lives.

Tape:    cut four -- Stepan (0:46)

         "Sometimes the logic of a nation-state and the logic of
         democracy can be conflicting.  For example, if you
         really think of a nation-state as a state of and for a
         particular majority -- it might be ethnic estonians --
         and don't think that also the large minority groups,
         such as the Russian population, have rights, you might
         end up pursuing a nation-state logic that's very, very
         much against a democracy-building logic.  And it's
         useful to have classes where you have Estonians and
         Russians in the same class, or Croats and Serbs in the
         same class, having a chance, not just once in some
         dramatic confrontation, but through the course of the
         entire year, working through some of these classic
         problems together."

Text:    Violeta Bisirizic [vee-oh-let-tah bee-zeer-i-zitch], a
         lawyer from Belgrade, is studying comparative
         constitutional law at Central European University.  She
         says that, because her country has been under sanctions
         for nearly three years, her studies were interrupted.
         She is pleased with the way things have worked out.

Tape:    cut five -- Bisirizic (0:43)

         "So I didn't have the opportunity to learn.  And the
         reason why I chose the Central European UYiversity is
         also connected with this.  I couldn't get any other
         scholarship in the other parts of the world because I'm
         coming from Yugoslavia.  But here, I didn't have any
         problem. I am taught here by the world-famous
         professers.  They are coming from U.S.A. mostly, then
         from Germany, France, and England.  And I'm really,
         really grateful for having the opportunity to be here
         and to be taught by them.  I hope that I can help my
         country to establish in some way a democracy -- not only
         me but the younger generation -- to establish a
         democratic system in Yugoslavia."

Text:    Violeta Bisirizic from Belgrade, Yugoslavia.  More than
         400 students from 34 countries currently study at
         Central European University.  And secretary-general Anne
         Lonsdale says the tuition assistance varies from country
         to country.

Tape:    cut six -- Lonsdale (0:23)

         "There really is no limit on where the students come
         from, but there is a difference in the kind of financial
         support they get.  Students from the region and from
         certain countries outside, like South Africa, may have
         scholarships to cover tuition and stipends to cover
         living costs, whereas students from Western Europe and
         the United States are expected to pay their way."

Text:    Anne Lonsdale is secreatary-general of the Central
         European University.  Students say that their experience
         there is helping them develop a sense of regionalism
         rather than the kind of narrow nationalism that prevails
         on many other campuses in the area.  And, they say, they
         are concentrating on issues associated with the problems
         of transition from communism to democracy.

(Actualities in Serbian and Armenian available from the writer.)


30-May-95 10:27 am edt (1427 utc)
nnnn

source: Voice of America

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