[RETRANSCRIPTION]

Comm.36/94

MINISTER

FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY

His Excellency

Max van der Stoel

CSCE High Commissioner

on National Minorities

Budapest, 8 November l994

Dear Mr. High Commissioner,

Our intention during your visit to Hungary in August was to give you a comprehensive picture of the Hungarian government's policy on minorities. Following on from our conversation at that time, an opportunity now presents itself of responding effectually to the questions you raise.

On the subject of parliamentary representation of the national minorities, I have to say that the Romany minority was the only one from which parties stood in the parliamentary elections. However, they received minimal numbers of votes, which meant that they did not enter parliament. Although members of various minority groupe gained seats in parliament on party lists, the minority leaders do not regard these as representing the minorities as such.

In the absence of minority organizations capable of entering Parliament, this situation will only be resolved by the local - government elections and by the election of national self-governing bodies of the minorities, which will constitute organizations capable of delegation.

According, to the latest proposals, the members for delegation to parliament would be elected by the broadest forum of such a national self-governing body, its General Assembly of Local Deputies.

Under the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary, the members of Parliament have to be elected directly, whereas the delegation method, which can be considered the only possibility at present is and indirect one. So in order to implement it the Constitution will have to be amended, which is a lengthy process that cannot be completed before the end of l995. this means that direct parliamentary representation of minorities can be expected to begin only with the next general elections, due in l998.

For the interim period, we are planning a compensating solution. There will appear in the next few days a government proposal for establishing a Minority Interest mediation Council, consisting of representatives of political parties, representatives of affected government organizations, and independent experts. Also under consideration is the convening of a committee alongside the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Minority and Religious Affairs, whose members would be delegated by the national self-governing bodies of the minorities and take part in the work of Parliament as non-voting observers. This question is currently before the conciliation forum of the governing coalition parties.

Turning to the question of forming the minority self-governing bodies in practice, I must say that for several historical reasons the scattered settlement pattern of the minorities and their relatively small numbers we had to devise a logically clear, but extremely complex procedure, which has taken no little time to apply. An influencing factor was the fact that most members of the minorities are also in a minority in the community in which they live, often amounting to only five or ten per cent of the population, or even less.

The minorities will now be able to elect their own separate councils and self-governing bodies at the same time as the local-government elections are being held. This can take place in two ways, by direct and indirect voting.

In the case of indirect voting. that candidates announce that they wish to run a minority candidate in the general local-government elections. If the majority of the local elected body are elected from the same minority, they will dominate the decision-making. If at least 30 % enter as candidates of one minority, the minority representatives can form a separate self-governing body, which will deal primarily with minority affairs.

There will be direct election where the minority citizens do not wish to run minority candidates for the local-government authority of the community, or the number of minority representatives is too small for a minority self-governing body to form, but they nonetheless wish to form an elected body to represent their interests. In this case and separate election can be held, as a result of which a direct local minority self-governing body will form alongside the community's local-government authority.

The local minority self-governing bodies formed in this way will have two important functions:

l) to influence and monitor local matters affecting the minority and

2) to appoint electoral delegates to a national assembly, which will establish a national self-governing body of the minority.

I am still unable, High Commissioner, to give you precise details of the financing of the minority self-governing bodies, since the l995 budget has yet to be passed by Parliament, and a decision on the question of a minority ambudsman has not yet been reached. Nonetheless I hope to be able to report to you on reassuring solutions to both these questions in the near future.

Please accept my expressions of the highest esteem.

Yours sincerely

(s i g n a t u r e)

(L�zslo Kov�cs)