1988. október (246-270. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2
®M.£ Editor: György Krassó * 24/D Little Russell Street * London, WC1A 2HN * Tel. 01-430 2126 (írom abroad 441-430 2126) 247/1988 (E) 2nd October, 1988 Hungárián Foreign Minister’s Opinion on the Government Report about Bős-Nagymaros On Septeraber 7th the Council of Ministers adopted the report about the Bos-Nagymaros hydro-electric plánt by the Minister of the Environment and Water Supply. The govemment spokesperson sald "that the govemment analysed the investment with especial caution and framed its viewpoint after careful deliberation". Doubts were raised about the impartiality of the report and the Danube Circle in a protest deelaration criticised it as "uncritically supportive" of the dam’s construction.Hungárián October Information Centre recently came intő possession of confidential documents which reinforce these doubts. The documents - letters from institutes which comment on the report - reveal that organisations from the Hungárián Post Office to the Treasury, from the National Technical Development Committee to the Hungárián Academy of Sciences and the most significant scientific, political and economic bodies think that the Ministerial report is impartial and they all take a stand against continuing construction. The Foreign Ministry’s letter no. 3296-3/1988 of August 3rd which was signed by Dr. Gyula Hóm Dhder-Secretaryof State says that the report, which is intended to inform Parliament, gives a false impression, one that allows no possibility fór restricting or modifying the investment although the dam’s construction may later poison Hungarian- Austrian and Hungarian-Czech relations. "The effect of a domestic policy which included justified modifications would increase the govemment’s prestige and would prevent a long lasting fight with agriculturalists and ecologists." According to the Foreign Ministry the true budget of these investments "will in the next few years exceed that which is reported. It will be hard to explain why we undertook this huge burden which will only supply 2-4$ of the country’s totál energy from the year 2015 in the country’s present situation'*. The letter continues:"The International ecology organisations classify this dam as one of the 25 most ecologically dangerous investments in the world." The Foreign Ministry’s second letter on August 9th, which was signed by the Deputy Minister Dr. József Benyi, states that in the 1977 Hungarian-Czech treaty the modification of state borders - exchange of territories - is alsó decreed bút in order to do this a new law must be passed. The report does nőt state "that on the basis of the Peace treaty the settlement and modification of borders necessitates the consent or at least the subsequent notification of Federal and Allied Powers". The Foreign Ministry’s statement says that the Trianon Peace Treaty and the 1977 Hungarian-Czech Treaty designate the"Danube main shipping channel as the Hungarian-Czech bordér and thus to honour the letter of the Trianon and Paris Peace Treaty the old Danube boundary must be ensured and thus the necessary depth as well." It is worth mentioning a report by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Supply dated August 26th no. 3600/4/1988 which does nőt even deny the modifications to the Hungarian-Austrian bordér which have already occurred without Parliament’s permission and that further bordér changes are being drafted between Hungary and Czechoslovakia and Hungary and lugoslavia. According to Dr. Miklós Varga Secretary of State fór the Ministry of the Environment and Water Supply the conformation of the boundary river will be ensured by 50-200 cubic metres of water output per second however these figures when matched against a 100-150 metre stretch of water will nőt make either shipping or the survival of the old Danube’s conformation possible. Subscribers can use or quote the Hungárián October newsletters in totál or in detail as long as the source is acknowledged.
