Tibor Navracsics, the minister of public administration and regional development, said Hungary and Slovenia are cooperating in regional development and in supporting ethnic minorities.
Following talks with Slovenia’s minister for cohesion and regional development Aleksander Jevsek in Sümeg, in western Hungary, on Friday, Navracsics said the goal was to preserve identities, enrich cultural life and strengthen businesses. Navracsics told a joint press conference that his talks with his Slovenian counterpart had focused on the results of bilateral programmes, cooperation in regional development and providing support for ethnic minorities. The sides discussed programmes supporting investments affecting the Hungarian community in Slovenia and ethnic Slovenes in Hungary. The minister said they wanted to continue the programmes, financed partly from European Union funds and partly by the two governments. Navracsics expressed his appreciation of Slovenia’s support for ethnic communities and offered his government’s support for development opportunities for the Slovene community in Hungary. Jevsek said the most important goal was to keep the population especially young people in the border region, and he called job creation and the development of tourism indispensable for this purpose. He said Slovenia and Hungary were each spending one million euros on implementing the projects. Jevsek pointed to the importance of bilateral cooperation in tourism, economy and culture.