INTERVIEW with Hungary’s Special Ministerial Envoy: we disagree with most of our neighbours on minority issues

We interviewed Ferenc Kalmár, Hungary’s Special Ministerial Envoy for Neighbourhood Policy Development. We talked about his tasks, the situation of the Hungarian communities in the Carpathian Basin, how the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine affects minority issues. Furthermore, we also touched how the problems of the autochthonous can be represented in the European Union.

DNH: It may not be clear to everyone, so first of all, what exactly is your role within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

Ferenc Kalmár: In order to understand my role, we should go back to the 90s. At that time, preparing the accession of Hungary to the EU, our country has concluded agreements on good neighbourhood with all our neighbours except Austria. These agreements stated that Hungary and the neighbouring countries shall create on bilateral bases Intergovernmental Joint Committees on the problems of National Minorities. Their duty is to discuss at least once per year the problems arising in the field of national minority protection. It is well known that in all these countries live considerable Hungarian communities. In 2015 I have been nominated to be the Hungarian coo president of all these Committees.

Photo: facebook.com/mmonkpmsns

DNH: What is the difference between a minority and an autochthonous minority? And why is the situation of national minorities important for Hungary?

Ferenc Kalmár: Autochthonous national minorities are those communities which have become minorities because of border changes. It is well known that in Europe, due to its turbulent history borders had changed frequently. Thus a national community could become easily a minority although they have been living on the same territory for centuries. There are, of course other minorities, too. For instance, religious or due to the massive migration towards Europe considerable other national minorities were created but my role is related to the autochthonous ones.

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This is important for Hungary because after the First WW we have lost two third of our territory and thus one third of the Hungarian nation live in the neighbouring countries as national minorities. The protection of their identity, preservation of the Hungarian cultural heritage on these territories is of utmost importance for Hungary.

DNH: Let’s take a look at the neighbouring countries and see what Hungary has achieved with whom, and what tasks are still ahead. Croatia, Slovenia and Austria have a relatively small number of native Hungarian minorities, what is their situation? Are there any minority mixed committee meetings?

Ferenc Kalmár: We have annual meetings with our Croatian and Slovenian counterparts. Our cooperation is good, fruitful and there are no difficult problems which could not be discussed or solved in this field. Both Hungary and the two mentioned countries support reciprocally their minorities. As I told before with Austria we do not have this kind of Committee.

DNH: There is a great deal of agreement between the Serbian and Hungarian governments, economic cooperation is at its maximum, and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Belgrade that the Serbian state is treating the Hungarian minority in a way that serves as an example for the whole world. But Hungarians living there often say the opposite, and draw attention to the huge exodus. What is the truth?

Ferenc Kalmár: The legal background of national minority protection in Serbia is really at a high level. Problems may appear due to the poor implementation. In fact, the relations between Hungary and Serbia have been recently raised to a strategic level with the creation of a Strategic Intergovernmental Body which will discuss the issue of national minority protection, too. The huge exodus is due mostly to economic reasons and not because of national discriminations.

DNH: Slovakia is another interesting area, as we have seen a lot of economic and infrastructural cooperation between the two countries in recent years, but the infamous Benes decree is still in force, and the Slovak side seems to be reluctant to hear about the withdrawal of this discriminatory regulation. Will this be discussed at the meeting of the Hungarian-Slovak minority joint committee?

Ferenc Kalmár: Our relations with Slovakia are treated as strategic ones. This means that there is progress in every field. The issue of the actual use of the Benes decrees has been on the agenda of the Committee. We still did not finish the actual session due to the forthcoming election in Slovakia. We will continue afterwards and hope to reach an agreement which will be signed. It is important to mention that even the monitoring group of the Council of Europe which monitored the implementation of the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities in Slovakia has mentioned this issue in their protocol.

DNH: There are more than one and a half million Hungarians living in Romania, there is a lot of Hungarian state aid coming to Transylvania, the RMDSZ represents Hungarians in parliament, and recently the prime ministers of the two countries met in person in Bucharest. What is the state of play on the Hungarian-Romanian nationality issue, what progress has been made and what tasks remain to be done?

Ferenc Kalmár: According to the last Romanian census (2023) there are more than one million Hungarians in Romania but unfortunately their number is under 1.5 million. The RMDSZ was part of the governing coalition till recently when, after the rotation of the prime-ministers they were left out. Regarding our talks in the framework of the Joint Committee I have to tell you that the last plenary meeting was held in 2011 and it ended without signing the protocol. But, after 2015 when I took over the presidency of the Hungarian side we had several meetings of the coo presidents when we discussed the main issues. In 2021, in Gyula we have signed a protocol which contained the non-agreed issues, too, and passed the initiative to the Romanian side. In 2022, October we had a coo presidential meeting in Bucharest when we agreed that the Romanian side will formulate the draft protocol. We have got it at the beginning of this summer. We will prepare our answer. So, the process is going on but the conclusion is not so close. There are still difficult issues to be discussed.

DNH: The most difficult question is Ukraine. Every Hungarian’s heart is heavy when they think that there is a war going on in their neighbouring country and that Hungarians are fighting on the front. At the same time, relations between the governments of the two countries are not good, to put it mildly, and the Ukrainian parliament is busy trimming the rights of the minority, even in times of war. International organisations have also condemned the new Ukrainian anti-minority measures, but the ever-smaller Hungarian community in Transcarpathia continues to face a difficult situation. Are there talks with your Ukrainian colleagues? Is any improvement at all expected in the short term?

Ferenc Kalmár: Unfortunately, the work of the Joint Committee is frozen for the moment although we declared that we are prepared for further dialogue and this year, through the Ukrainian Embassy in Budapest the Ukrainian side has declared that they are willing to start again the dialogue. In September 2021 I was in Kiev and after that the secretary of the Committee was in Budapest. But, unfortunately the break out of the war has interrupted this process. In the meantime, the Ukrainian side do not have neither coo president nor secretary. Actually the subcommittee for education will meet in September. The very recent meeting of the two Presidents set that the bilateral dialogue on this issue should start again with the aim of reaching quick results.

DNH: Speeches and proposals for resolutions have been made on the platforms of the European Union and the Council of Europe, and there have even been several petitions to clarify the situation of autochthonous minorities. Moreover, the EU and the CoE condemn all forms of negative discrimination, yet no progress has been made in recent years. What is your position, what solution would you be satisfied with? And more interestingly, what would it take to make this happen?

Ferenc Kalmár: At European level there are two documents which are always referred to as compulsory, binding documents. These are the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and The European Charta for Regional and Minority Languages. The problem with these documents is that they are binding but not enforceable. I and other leading experts and politicians, among them Dr Katalin Szili, former Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament think that Europe would need a binding and enforceable Framework legislation regarding national minority protection. Together with Dr Katalin Szili we have proposed five basic principles which should form the basis of this legislation.

Unfortunately, in the last years we experience a step-back in this field globally. The Ukrainian-Russian war has accentuated this trend.

Anyhow, the issue of autochthonous national minorities in Europe should remain on the main political agenda since it influences strongly stability and peace on the continent.