Over 0.7 million apply for Hungary citizenship

Budapest, February 25 (MTI) – So far, 710,000 ethnic Hungarians have applied for Hungarian citizenship and some 670,000 have been granted that status, state secretary Janos Arpad Potapi told Parliament’s national cohesion committee on Wednesday.

Potapi said that 66 percent of those granted citizenship were from Romania, 17 percent from northern Serbia and 14 percent from western Ukraine.

Potapi said that the Hungarian government was planning to spend a total 17.6 billion forints (EUR 58m) on assistance to Hungarian communities abroad.

Concerning the government’s Korosi Csoma Sandor programme, Potapi said that in 2015 the scheme will involve Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, on top of 24 countries covered last year. The scheme seeks to strengthen ties between Hungarians through promoting national culture through language courses and other cultural activities. The programme used a budget of nearly one billion forints last year.

Photo: Daily News Hungary

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters