Hongarije daagt Slowakije voor Hof vanwege wijgering ontvangst Hongaarse president (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Hungary has accused fellow EU state and neighbour Slovakia of violating the basic EU law on free movement of people after it refused Hungarian President permission to enter the country last year.
The Hungarian foreign ministry filed the complaint at the EU's top court in Luxembourg on Monday (5 July), concerning the incident last August with President Laszlo Solyom, whose term in office will end in less than month.
Slovakia barred the head of state from attending a ceremonial unveiling of a statue of Saint Stephen I, the patron saint of Hungary and its first king, in Komarno, a Slovak town near the Hungarian border which has a population of over 60 percent ethnic Hungarians.
Slovakia's official reason given for the denial was that the Hungarian president's visit might have constituted a security risk.
The two countries' relations have deteriorated in recent times amid a rise in national chauvinisms on both sides. The ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party, a member of the then ruling coalition government, saw the Solyom visit as a "provocation."
Slovakia's new right-wing coalition government has said it hopes to improve relations with its neighbour. But Budapest recently elected a conservative government that aims to hand out passports to thousands of ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring countries, a move seen as a threat by Bratislava.
Slovak diplomats expect the court to rule in its favour following a recent opinion by the European Commission concerning the Solyom dispute.
Brussels in June said that European legislation on free movement of people does not apply to visits by heads of member states to another country's territory, but solely to individuals as "private citizens."
"It will be interesting to watch how many times Hungary will want to hear that there are certain diplomatic principles and decency standards concerning the visits of foreign states, which President Solyom infringed," Slovak foreign ministry spokesman Maros Stano said to TASR, a Slovak press agency, following Hungary's court move on Monday.
In March 2009 Mr Solyom had similar problem with Romania. Local authorities did not permit the presidential plane to land in the country when the President wanted to visit Transylvania during Hungarian national day.
Romanian officials said that Mr Solyom had wanted to fly to Romania on a military plane in an unusual arrangement. The president in the end went by car.