OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 172,  5 September 1996


LATVIA, NETHERLANDS SIGN AGREEMENT ON MARITIME TRANSPORT. Dutch
Transport Minister Annamari Jorritsma-Lebbink and Latvian Communications
Minister Vilis Kristopans signed a bilateral agreement on maritime
transport in Riga on 4 September, BNS reported. They also signed a
memorandum on the introduction of the information system Eucaris to
Latvia. The system, currently operating in the Benelux countries, Great
Britain, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, provides for data exchange on
cars and their drivers, thus making transit of stolen cars through
Latvia more difficult. -- Saulius Girnius

DATE SET FOR SIGNING ROMANIAN-HUNGARIAN TREATY. A spokesman for the
Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry announced on 4 September that the
basic treaty between the two countries will be signed on 16 September in
the western Romanian city of Timisoara, Romanian and Hungarian media
report. The news was confirmed by the office of Hungarian Premier Gyula
Horn in Budapest. Horn and Prime Minister Nicoale Vacaroiu will sign the
document in the presence of Romanian President Ion Iliescu. Reuters
reported that the choice of Timisoara was a compromise, since neither
side agreed to have the document signed in the other's capital. It was
also announced that two additional documents stemming from President Ion
Iliescu's August 1995 initiative for a "historic reconciliation" between
the two countries are to be signed later. -- Michael Shafir and Zsofia
Szilagyi.

SECOND HUNGARIAN MINORITY SUMMIT CONVENES IN WESTERN HUNGARY. A
second
round of the ethnic Hungarian minority summit was held in the western
Hungarian city of Papa on 4 September, Hungarian media reported.
Discussion focused on the Hungarian-Romanian basic treaty, and its
impact on Romania's 1.6 million ethnic Hungarians. Participants strongly
objected to the choice of Timisoara as the venue for the signing of the
treaty. Bela Marko, president of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of
Romania called the two governments' choice of venue a "mockery of the
revolutionary traditions of Timisoara." -- Zsofia Szilagyi


[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Janet Hofmann