Slovakia's disagreements with its ethnic Hungarians over the recently passed state language and living conditions of Roma citizerns dominated Slovak Vice-Prime Minister Dusan Čaplovič's discussions with American officials on September 29 during his current working visit to the United States, the TASR newswire reported.
At a meeting with the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Karen B. Stewart, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for North and Central Europe, Pamela Quanrud, on that day, Čaplovič spoke about the country's actions taken along with European Union to integrate the country's Roma into society at large and improve their life.
The Deputy PM for European affairs, human rights and minorities said the state language issue which came before the international authorities over protests from Hungary against the violation of its minority rights was misrepresented by Hungarian politicians. He informed US officials that Slovakia had submitted the state language-related legislation to the Council of Europe and that an 11-point programme was agreed between Slovak premier Robert Fico and his Hungarian opposite number Gordon Bajnai to ease inter-country tensions.
According to Čaplovič, American officials were pleased to learn that most recent developments between Slovakia and Hungary are now taking place on a bilateral level with the exclusion of international bodies, TASR wrote.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
