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Osijek - Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and his Hungarian counterpart Laszlo Kövér laid a foundation stone in Osijek on Wednesday for a student dormitory of the Hungarian Education and Culture Centre. The HRK 8.5 million investment will be financed from the Croatian budget and the dorm is expected to be built in 300 days. It will house 50 students.
In his address, Jandroković said Croatia was creating conditions so that all ethnic minorities could feel satisfied and that today's event was important for the protection of the Hungarian minority's rights and enabling it to nurture its language, culture and identity. He said the treatment of the Croatian minority in Hungary and the Hungarian in Croatia was at a very high level, as noted by some international institutions, and that this was the result of centuries of good relations between the two peoples.
Kövér said the Hungarian Education and Culture Centre in Osijek was the only institution of its kind in Croatia and that he was pleased that, despite demographic challenges, the number of students in Hungarian schools in Croatia had not dropped. Our goal is to offer every Hungarian a competitive education in their hometowns, from kindergarten to university, and we are counting on the Hungarian Education and Culture Centre in Osijek in that regard, he said. In the context of education and upbringing, the laying of the foundation stone means the beginning of a new period of spiritual growth, Kövér added.
The head of the centre, Janos Andocsi, said 47 children were currently enrolled in the kindergarten, 40 in elementary and 33 in high school.
Speaking to reporters, Jandroković said today was very important for Croatian-Hungarian relations and that it confirmed that the two countries were friends and partners, and that their protection of minorities could serve as an example to all other countries.
Kövér said today's meeting was a new step in the strengthening of Croatian-Hungarian friendship and parliamentary cooperation, adding that Croats in Hungary and Hungarians in Croatia were a link between the two countries.
In Beli Manastir, the two parliament speakers attended a ceremony marking 25 years of the Democratic Union of Croatian Hungarians.