RFE/RL NEWSLINE 
Vol. 1, No. 136, 10 October 1997

HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT APPROVES REFERENDUM. Arpad Goncz on 9
October approved the parliament's decision to hold a referendum on
NATO membership and land ownership by foreign companies (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 8 October 1997). The binding referendum is
likely to be held on 16 November. The opposition criticized Goncz for
not waiting for the Constitutional Court to rule on the opposition's
appeal against the government-formulated questions or for
verification that the 300,000 signatures opposing those questions are
authentic. In other news, the government announced it is setting up
a foundation to support research into the situation of ethnic
minorities in Europe, Reuters reported. The foundation will start
working on 1 January 1998 and will have a 50 million forints
($257,000) budget.


HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SUMS UP ROMANIAN VISIT. At a
press conference in Budapest following his two-day visit to Romania,
Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs said Bucharest does not
consider it possible split the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj into
separate Romanian and Hungarian sections but will not hinder the
establishment of an autonomous Hungarian university elsewhere, an
RFE/RL corespondent in Budapest reported on 9 October. At a joint
press conference with his Romanian counterpart, Adrian Severin, in
Bucharest, Kovacs said both governments are duty-bound to act
against manifestations of extreme nationalism. In this connection, he
mentioned "anti-Hungarian" positions in Romanian "political rhetoric"
and in the media. Kovacs said the government in Budapest would
take action if anti-Romanian reports were to appear in Hungary.

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