OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 101, 24 May 1996

POLAND TO BECOME OECD MEMBER. The Polish Finance Minister Grzegorz
Kolodko said on 23 May that Poland was invited to join the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with its membership
beginning 11 or 12 July, Polish and international media reported. Poland
is to become the third Central European country, after Hungary and the
Czech Republic, to join the organization of leading industrial nations.
The invitation comes after Poland recently passed laws that remove
obstacles to OECD membership, including lessening restrictions on
foreign acquisition of property. -- Jakub Karpinski

SLOVAK PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR "CLEAN" HUNGARIAN CONSTITUENCIES.
Meeting with OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Max van der
Stoel in Bratislava on 23 May, Vladimir Meciar stated that "creating
clean Hungarian electoral districts is in Slovakia's interest," Narodna
obroda reported. "The new territorial administration will not influence
Hungarian representation in Slovakia's parliament," government
spokeswoman Ludmila Bulakova quoted Meciar as saying. Meanwhile,
Hungarian minority representatives asked for the OSCE's help in
resolving their problems and called the idea of "clean" Hungarian
constituencies "nonsense." In other news, Meciar's 17 May interview on
Slovak Radio has brought criticism from ethnic Hungarians. "People who
are not satisfied here and want to leave must be accommodated," Meciar
said. Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement chairman Bela Bugar on 22
May stressed that "every prime minister has the . . . obligation to take
steps to make citizens feel at home." -- Sharon Fisher

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Deborah Michaels