The subject of today’s SMK-MKP press conference was the education strategy of SMK-MKP and the newly adopted act on Minority Culture Fund. Péter Őry, President of the National Council of SMK-MKP, said in connection with the Minority Culture Fund that SMK-MKP has developed several plans over the last few years, which would allow ethnic minorities in Slovakia to manage their own affairs of cultural nature (and further affairs that play a crucial role in the preservation of their identity as well).
Commenting on the law proposed by the current government and adopted by the Parliament, he said that it is encouraging that the sum intended for the support of the culture of minorities in Slovakia is higher than the amount set out so far. However, he also added that this is still far below the amount which would comply with the proportion of minorities within the whole population of Slovakia. Moreover, he also mentioned other examples: Hungary granted a subsidy amounting to HUF 8.9 billion for supporting the Hungarian cultural life in Slovakia in 2016, and the supported Hungarian NGOs in Slovakia paid EUR 5 million of this sum in taxes. Therefore, the Hungarian NGOs in Slovakia are paying more in tax to the State budget of Slovakia from the subsidy granted by Hungary than the grant which is provided by the Slovak State for supporting the cultural life of Hungarians in Slovakia (while Hungarians in Slovakia are taxpayers of Slovakia).
Őry made an additional comparison: the Hungarian State provided a support for culture in the amount of EUR 3.3 million to the Slovak minority in Hungary of 30,000 members in 2016, while Slovakia is only now increasing the grant to EUR 4 million to be provided for the culture of Hungarians in Slovakia of 0.5 million members (!). Őry hopes that the newly accepted total allocation that is disproportionate from many aspects will increase; according to him, there is room for improvement in this respect in Slovakia.
Őry also claimed that some persons consider the newly created Minority Culture Fund as ensuring cultural autonomy for minorities. He stated that this is not at all the case here. Above all, since minorities do not have any elected representative in this case either that would serve as the basis for self-governance. It is merely a matter of the establishment of a public institution which will be under the supervision of the Ministry. The Ministry will appoint the director of the Fund, nominate two members into its five-member decision-making body, and three members will be delegated by minority organisations. Under the new law, all requests and documents can only be submitted in Slovak. According to Őry, at least a small gesture could have been made for the national minorities by allowing the organisations concerned to submit their applications in their own language.
(www.mkp.sk, 6 June 2017)
