Dr. István Szent-Iványi je od januarja 2010 madžarski veleposlanik v Sloveniji. Veleposlanik naše vzhodne sosede v teh dneh veliko pozornost posveča dogodkom, povezanim z madžarskim predsedovanjem Evropski uniji. Slednje je sicer naletelo na nekatere kritike, Szent-Iványi pa je dejal, da bo »končni račun mogoče izstaviti na koncu dneva«. Med našim pogovorom je beseda nanesla tudi na nedavne »off the record« besede, ki jih je na račun Madžarske izrekel slovenski premier Borut Pahor. Veleposlanik je izpostavil interes odličnega sodelovanja s Slovenijo. Pogovor z veleposlanikom Madžarske v nadaljevanju objavljamo v angleščini.

Welcome to Slovenia. After taking over the post of ambassador in Ljubljana you have had the chance to get to know the country and its people. What were those first impressions?
Slovenia is a very nice, beautiful and hosptable country and the people are also very kind, however sometimes they seem to be a bit reserved. I feel myself well here, there are much in common with my country.

Slovenian and hungarian people have had a long history. Is the bond, this bridge as strong as ever? Should we strive even harder to build stronger bridges between both nations?
Of course we should strengthen the ties between our nations. The potential is there, the fondament is sound and solid, we need to have more fantasy and inventions to promote the relationship.

Despite some open questions the relation between Ljubljana and Budapest seems to be intact. Can this change after recent »off the record« comments, made by slovenian prime minister Borut Pahor?
No coment on the “off the record” statement. We keep ourselves to the official line of the Slovenian foreign policy. Our interest is to have an excellent, and ever closer cooperation with Slovenia and we would like to avoid any pointless debate or dispute.





How would you anyway assess the cooperation between both countries, especially in border regions? Has it improved through the years, regardless of different kind of changes?
It has improved very slowly, but we are not satisfied with the pace of the improvement. We hope that the new highway and the EU funds can have a very healthy contibution to the economic progress in the border region. Unfortunately in both of our countries these regions are backwarded and underdeveloped. We need concentrated and combined efforts to boost economy there.

Hungary is currently finishing the EU Presidency, which was marked with several events in Slovenia as well. Are you satisfied with hungarian achievements, despite some criticism regarding new hungarian media law and new constitution? How valuable were slovenian experiences while preparing for the EU presidency?
We can make a final balance only at the end of the day. We are expecting a very important European Council meeting on 24 of June. So far so good, we have achieved a lot of important goals (Roma Inclusion Strategy, Danube Regional Strategy, energy package and so on). Slovenia was very helpful to share its experiences of the EU Presidency with us and we made a good benefit from that.

Hungarian EU presidency has dedicated special attention to culture. Slovenian public got a chance for example to get to know famous composer Franz Liszt. Would you say that Slovenians know well enough hungarian culture or how known is our culture in Hungary? What should be done more, better?
Unfortunately there is a great deal of ignorance towars each others in both of our countries. The Hungarian culture is well known to few people here and practically that is the case for Slovenian culture in my country as well. We try to do our best during the Hungarian Cultural Semester in the first half of this year and we try to repeat our efforts next year in Maribor in the ECC project. Sometimes it seems to be desperate, but there is no other option, we have to try again and again, to bring our culture here and promote and you should do the same in Hungary.

But you also haven’t forgotten about water and environment protection? Are we, speaking generally, in your oppinion actually aware of the danger of climate changes, do we care enough for our enivornment? Should EU or governments do more?
We do not forget about it at all. It was one of the main priority of the HU Presidency and one of the hard core of the EU Danube Strategy. We organised a street festival in Koper about it, where the environment and water were the topical themes of that festival. EU is aware of the importance of the protection of the environment, but you are right, it is never enough and always you can do more and better. HU Presidency permanently kept this issue on the agenda and we expect more results.

But where should we start speaking about those issues? Should we start discussing those issues already with children in kindergarten and continue upward?
As early as possible. But it is not exclusively the responsibility of the state institutions like kindergartens, schools and so on. The families do have a great deal of responsibility starting with recycling, reusing the things, ecological garbages and so on. Of course the civil society does have a lion’s share in it as well.

How would you assess the action, taken by Hungary and Slovenia for the better, safer environment?
I do appreciate them. I find the initiative of Green Group on behalf of Slovenia an excellent example and Green Group concentrates on the water diplomacy very much. Hungary also tries to raise awareness of ecology through its EU Presidency.

Eco tourism is every year gaining on popularity. How widespread is this form of tourism in your country?
Not as much as I wish, but year to year it has a growing imoportance. I am not very competent in that, but I do support the country tourism, cycling, walking or roaming and so on.

Does exist in Hungary an agency, body or department that aims to motivate, inform the public about eco tourism? At which level does it exists, what is its main goal and which are the competences?
I really do not know. And if I do not hear about it, it could not be very efficient. The Hungarian Tourism Organisation does have a section which deals this type of tourism, but I know very little about it.


Anita Balas
Junij 2011