RFE/RL NEWSLINE 
Vol. 1, No. 112,  8 September1997

HUNGARIAN PREMIER SAYS MECIAR WANTS POPULATION
EXCHANGE. Gyula Horn told Hungarian Radio on 5 September that at
a mid-August meeting in Gyor, his Slovak counterpart, Vladimir
Meciar, suggested the voluntary repatriation of ethnic Hungarians
living in Slovakia and ethnic Slovaks living in Hungary. Horn said he
had categorically refused to discuss the topic, adding that it evokes
living in Slovakia and ethnic Slovaks living in Hungary. Horn said he
had categorically refused to discuss the topic, adding that it evokes
"very sad" and "tragic" historical memories. He said he had not
mentioned the matter earlier because he himself had not brought up
the topic and because he is unwilling to discuss it. At a rally in
Bratislava on 4 September, Meciar said he had proposed to Horn that
those people who do not want to be Slovak citizens go to Hungary
and live there.

HUNGARY'S CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS JOIN FORCES WITH YOUNG
DEMOCRATS. The parliamentary caucus of the Alliance of Young
Democrats--Hungarian Civic Party's (FIDESZ-MPP) voted on 7
September to admit 11 members of the Christian Democratic People's
Party's parliamentary group, which was recently dissolved. FIDESZ-
MPP is now the largest opposition party in the parliament, Hungarian
media reported. The 11 new members can work within FIDESZ-MPP
but will not join the party. The parliament's Constitutional Committee
has yet to approve the move.


"THE SPIRIT OF VILNIUS"

by Paul Goble

        For the first time, the countries between the Baltic and the
Black Seas have found a common voice, one that will help them to
integrate into the West, even as they smooth their relations with one
another and with Moscow. At a meeting in Vilnius on 5 and 6
September, the presidents of 10 countries in the region sharply
criticized the retreat from democratic reforms in Belarus. They
stressed they want to work with both Russia and the West. And they
committed themselves to broader regional cooperation.
         As a result, a summit originally convened to help overcome
bilateral conflicts among those states was transformed into
something much bigger. That development would appear to justify
the claims of some of the leaders present that they will be guided by
the "spirit of Vilnius" in the future.
        The meeting, organized by the leaders of Poland and Lithuania,
attracted the presidents of Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine, as well as the prime minister
of the Russian Federation. The outcome of the meeting was defined
less by the individual positions that each of those leaders took than
by the collective spirit they displayed on three key issues.
        First, virtually all the presidents were sharply critical of the
increasingly anti-democratic behavior of one of their numbers,
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Their outspokenness
violated the usual diplomatic niceties of such sessions and indicated
that the countries of the region are at least prepared to take a hard
line against those who retreat from democracy and a free market
economy. It also largely dispelled the fears of those who had thought
Lukashenka might be able to exploit the Vilnius summit to escape his
economy. It also largely dispelled the fears of those who had thought
Lukashenka might be able to exploit the Vilnius summit to escape his
regime's current isolation on the international scene.
        Instead, the Vilnius meeting underlined Lukashenka's isolation
from his own people, from neighboring states, and from both Moscow
and the West. Not only did the leaders of the other countries speak
out, but representatives of Belarusian society directly challenged
Lukashenka's claims.
        Second, the 10 presidents indicated they want to cooperate
with both East and West rather than being forced to choose between
one or the other. Part of the reasoning behind that position was
clearly tactical. Several leaders said they are interested in improved
relations with Russia in order to improve their standing with
Western governments that have made good relations with Moscow a
virtual requirement for inclusion in Western institutions.
        But at the Vilnius meeting, there were also strategic
considerations. The Baltic presidents, for example, did not react as
sharply as they have in the past to Russian Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin's latest elaboration of Russian suggestions that the
sharply as they have in the past to Russian Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin's latest elaboration of Russian suggestions that the
three rely on Moscow rather than NATO. Each calmly reiterated the
desire of his country to join the Western alliance, but each equally
calmly said that his country did not want involvement with the West
to preclude good relations with Moscow.
        This approach led to a remarkable breakthrough. Following
bilateral meetings with the Russian premier, each of the Baltic
presidents was able to announce that he would soon be signing a
border agreement with the Russian Federation, thus laying to rest a
long-standing sore point in relations with Moscow.
        Third, the 10 presidents asserted that they want to work
together precisely so that they can take responsibility for themselves
rather than waiting for one or the other outside power to decide
their fate, as has happened so often in the past.
        Two countries -- Poland and Ukraine -- offered to host a
follow-up regional summit in 1999. And the representatives of
several other presidents indicated they were interested in much
closer consultations across the region.
several other presidents indicated they were interested in much
closer consultations across the region.
         In the past, efforts to promote such cooperation have
foundered on tensions among those countries and on the fears in
both Moscow and the West that such arrangements might become a
barrier to the inclusion of Russia into European institutions. But
precisely because the Vilnius summit was called to avoid setting up
such a barrier, this latest drive toward cooperation among the
countries of the region may be more successful than its predecessors
before World War Two and in the early 1990s.
        It has already attracted less opposition and more support from
outside. Not only did Moscow not denounce it, but U.S. President Bill
Clinton said it could play a useful role in "erasing the old dividing
lines in Europe." To the extent that the countries of the region
continue to act as they did in the Lithuanian capital, the "spirit of
Vilnius" may prove a turning point not only for them but for Europe
as a whole.

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