HUNGARIAN DECISION DISAPPROVED IN TRANSYLVANIA

Szabolcs Rostás reports from Kolozsvár

Jenő Szász, chairman of the Hungarian Civic Union (MPSZ) in Transylvania expressed his dissatisfaction and sorrow yesterday over the fact that the Hungarian parliament had given its unconditional consent to the EU-accession of Romania. Bucharest, however, along with the Hungarian Democratic Union in Romania (RMDSZ) greeted with words of appreciation the result of the decision. Formerly Jenő Szász had appealed to the Hungarian parliament requesting the representatives not to support the Romanian integration without conditions and to take into consideration the basic interests of the Hungarian community there and to ratify the accession treaty only after the Romanian parliament accepted the statutes of autonomy.

Jenő Szász said the Hungarian parliament had missed a historic opportunity as the ratification would have been an excellent occasion to make it unmistakably clear that Romania could not be integrated without the territorial autonomy of Székelyföld and without an autonomy based on the personal principle. Mr Szász claims the decision has been made in a wrong time and in a style showing insensitiveness as the Hungarian parliament should have waited for the EU-report on Romania expected at the end of October. Jenő Szász, Mayor of Székelyudvarhely found it quite symbolic that only half of the Fidesz faction voted with ’Yea’ on the accession of Romania: ’the government created a difficult position for the opposition which could choose between two wrong alternatives”, he added. Bishop László Tőkés, chairman of the Transylvanian Hungarian National Council shares a similar opinion saying the Hungarian decision was too hasty. Béla Markó, chairman of RMDSZ and Deputy Prime Minister of Romania, however, greeted the Hungarian decision. Zsolt Németh MP (Fidesz), head of the parliamentary foreign committee explained the decision of Fidesz by wishing to help the cause of Hungarian autonomy with the ratification of the EU-accession of Romania. ’Even abstention would have been equivalent to a weak ’nay’ which might have been detrimental both from the point of view of home and foreign policy’, Mr Németh said though he understood the sentiments of Transylvanians urging autonomy.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó