RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 2, No. 169, 2 September 1998

POLAND, HUNGARY SAY RUSSIAN CRISIS ARGUMENT FOR JOINING EU.
Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek and his Hungarian
counterpart, Janos Martonyi. said in Warsaw on 1 September
that their countries are coping well with Russia's economic
crisis, AP reported on 1 September. Geremek said this
provides "new arguments in [both countries'] drive to join
NATO and the EU." Martonyi supported the opinion by saying
that "the crisis shows to the world that Poland and Hungary
belong to the West." PAP reported the same day that both
ministers failed to reach agreement on Hungarian grain
imports to Poland. Following farmers' protests in June and
July, Poland last month imposed higher customs duties on
imported grain. JM

CONTROVERSY DEEPENS OVER HUNGARIAN SPYING SCANDAL. Opposition
Free Democrat parliamentary group leader Gabor Kuncze on 1
September said that the alleged illegal surveillance of
Federation of Young Democrats-Hungarian Civic Party leaders
is a "boomerang that has fallen on the head of Prime Minister
Viktor Orban," Hungarian media reported. Kuncze said the
governing coalition's reluctance to release alleged documents
on the affair raises the suspicion that there are no
documents to support Orban's allegations. Opposition
representatives on the parliament's National Security
Committee believe the government wants to postpone the
investigation as long as possible. Laszlo Kover, minister
without portfolio responsible for the civilian secret
services, said the opposition's attacks are aimed at
"crippling" the operation of the government. MSZ

VAN DER STOEL MEETS ROMANIAN, ETHNIC HUNGARIAN POLITICIANS.
OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Max van der
Stoel, who attended the ecumenical gathering in Bucharest on
1-2 September, met with Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu,
Education Minister Andrei Marga, and chairman of the
Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania Bela Marko,
RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. After the meeting with
Marko, Van der Stoel said he "needs more time for reflection"
before he makes a statement on the controversy over the
setting up of a Hungarian state university. Marko said the
commissioner told him he "very much hopes" that the
amendments to the education law will be passed by the
parliament "in the form originally submitted." He also said
that Van der Stoel is "well informed" and knows that the UDMR
demands have been accepted and included in the ruling
coalition agreement. MS

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