RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 48, 9 June 1997

EIGHT OFFICIALS CHARGED IN HUNGARY'S "TOCSIK SCANDAL." In one of the biggest
scandals in post-communist Hungary, eight officials associated with the
Privatization and State Property Holding Agency have been charged with
mismanagement, fraud, or forgery, Hungarian media reported on 6 June. One of
those charged is Marta Tocsik, a consultant who was paid more than 800 million
forints ($5.3 million) for mediating between the state privatization agency
and local governments over the division of income from the sales of state
enterprises. Charges also were filed against Laszlo Boldvai, a former
treasurer of Hungary's governing party; Peter Liszkai, a former legal counsel
for the privatization agency; and Imre Szokai, the privatization agency's forme
r
board chairman. In October 1996, Prime Minister Gyula Horn fired the agency's
entire board and ordered a full-scale investigation.

HUNGARY'S RULING PARTY HOLDS CONGRESS. The Socialist Party has good chances of
winning the 1998 general elections but must improve its policies and make
fewer mistakes, party chairman and Prime Minister Gyula Horn told the fifth
congress of his Socialist Party on 7 June. Horn called for party unity, saying
it would not be "constructive" for small groups within the party to "question
the authority of the leadership" less than a year before the elections. The
success of Hungary's economic stabilization and its prospects of joining NATO
and the EU were likely to help the Socialists repeat their 1994 victory, he
said.


ROMANIAN PARTICIPATION IN NEW REGIONAL FORMATIONS. Austrian Foreign Minister
Wolfgang Schuessel has submitted his country's proposals for the mechanism of
the Austrian-Romanian-Hungarian "trilateral." Schuessel met with his Romanian
counterpart, Adrian Severin, and Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister Matyas
Eoersi on 8 June in Sarajevo, where the three also attended a meeting of the
Central European Initiative. The "trilateral" was officially launched when the
three countries' foreign ministers met in Sintra, Portugal, one week earlier.
Also in Sarajevo, Severin agreed with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Hennadii
Udovenko and Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Aurelian Danila to set up a
"trilateral" of their countries. Meanwhile, it was announced in Bucharest that
the presidents of Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania will meet in Izmail, Ukraine,
in early July to officially launch the two "Euroregions" provided for in the
recent Romanian-Ukrainian basic treaty, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported on
8 June.

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