Prime Minister Iveta Radicova made use of the V4 summit in Bratislava to present her Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orban, with a draft bilateral agreement between Slovakia and Hungary dealing with the issue of dual citizenship.
The draft was presented to the Hungarian delegation by Secretary of state for the interior, Maros Zilinka. The proposal lays down the conditions for acquiring the citizenship of the other country, and also deals with diplomatic protection for people with dual citizenship of both countries.
According to the agreement, Hungary and Slovakia would also send each other annually updated lists of those requesting and receiving dual citizenship. The Hungarian government has been asked to provide its comments and overall stance to the draft agreement within two weeks.
PM Radicova feels that a bilateral agreement on dual citizenship is the only correct way to deal with the issue. Last week the government failed to push through its own revision to the Citizenship Act because of the mutiny of Igor Matovic, formerly of SaS, and Radoslav Prochazka from Christian democratic party KDH, as they both voted with the opposition.
The agreement should help resolve the disputed laws in both countries, as the Hungarian law allows all ethnic Hungarians abroad to gain citizenship, while the Slovak law, in its xenophobic reaction, strips anyone requesting dual citizenship of their Slovak one.