Zsolt Nemeth, head of the Hungarian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, met his Romanian counterpart Laszlo Borbely in Budapest on Thursday, for talks on energy security, the situation of the Hungarian and Romanian minorities in Ukraine as well as Romania’s upcoming presidential elections.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Nemeth pointed to “a number of positive tendencies” in Hungary-Romania ties, adding that all Hungary’s parliamentary parties supported those developments in bilateral relations.
Nemeth noted that the Nabucco gas project now seemed a lot more credible than earlier, and that diversifying energy supplies could be an excellent opportunity for Hungarian-Romanian cooperation.
Concerning Ukraine’s minorities, Nemeth said that both ethnic Hungarians and the Romanian community were “subject to an aggressive policy of homogenisation.” He said that the Hungarian and Romanian governments should take a firm position against Ukraine’s restrictions on the use of minority languages in education.
Nemeth also called on ethnic kin in Romania to participate in that country’s presidential election and demonstrate the strength of the community. Borbely added that the Hungarian minority was in a position to have an impact on the outcome of the election, and its RMDSZ party could even form part of the government after the next general elections.
