RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 56, 23 March 1998

NATO SATISFIED WITH PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS. Meanwhile, NATO officials said on
20 March that they are pleased with progress to date  by Poland, Hungary,
and the Czech Republic, an RFE/RL correspondent in Brussels reported. NATO
said that about 70 percent of the "force" goals have been met and that the
rest could be completed by June. "Force" goals are NATO procedures setting
standards for  troop size, weapons availability, logistics, and
communications, among others. PB

SLOVAKIA TO RETURN DAM DISPUTE TO THE HAGUE. Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar
told Hungarian ambassador to Bratislava Jeno Boros on 20 March that
Slovakia will ask the International Court of Justice in The Hague to rule
on Hungary's failure to abide by the court's ruling whereby the two sides
must reach an agreement by 25 March, CTK and AFP reported. Earlier, Boros
had handed Meciar a copy of a letter from Prime Minister Gyula Horn to the
Hague court explaining why Budapest has postponed signing the agreement.
Hungary wants further studies carried out to evaluate the environmental
implications of building an alternative dam to Nagymaros. MS

HUNGARY, ROMANIA SET UP JOINT PEACEKEEPING UNIT. Meeting in Budapest on 20
March,  visiting Romanian Defense Minister Constantin Dudu Ionescu and his
Hungarian counterpart, Gyorgy Keleti, signed the long-postponed agreement
to set up a joint 1,000-strong military peacekeeping unit, Hungarian media
reported. The Hungarian contingent is  be based in Hodmezovasarhely and the
Romanian one in Arad. The two sides drew lots to decide the first commander
of the battalion, who will be a Romanian officer. The previous day,
representatives of Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Romania met in
Vienna to discuss the setting up of a Central European Initiative for
Cooperation in Peacekeeping. MSZ

HUNGARIAN ETHNICS TO CONTINUE GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP. The Council of
Representatives of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR),
meeting in Miercurea-Ciuc on 21 March, decided to continue its
participation in the governing coalition. UDMR chairman Bela Marko said all
members of the ruling coalition must "assume responsibility" for the
mistakes made in the past and must correct them. The council rejected by an
overwhelming majority a proposal by members of one of UDMR's radical wings
that the federation leave the coalition, which has not accepted the UDMR's
demands for autonomy. MS

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