A total of 710 thousand Hungarians living in neighbouring countries have submitted applications for a simplified naturalization procedure so far and 670 thousand have taken the citizenship oath, said State Secretary for Nation Policy Árpád János Potápi at the National Assembly’s National Solidarity Committee meeting on Wednesday.

He added that 66 per-cent of those receiving new citizenship are from Transylvania, 17 per-cent from Vojvodina (Vajdaság) and14 per-cent from Transcarpathia (Kárpátalja).

Regarding the Bethlen Gábor Fund, he pointed out that its goal is to incorporate nation policy resources and operate a single payment scheme on the basis of transparency, efficiency and surveillance. It is the responsibility of the Bethlen Gábor Alapkezelő Zrt. to manage the fund’s assets as the amount to be allocated for nation policy purposes exceeds HUF 17.62 billion in 2015.

At the meeting held at Magyarság Háza, the State Secretary mentioned that since its re-launch, the Hungarian Permanent Conference has been held five times and it unanimously approved the final resolution. The Hungarian Diaspora Council, which has held its fourth meeting, is working in close cooperation with the Hungarian Permanent Conference.

He also mentioned that after 2013 and 2014, the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor programme will be announced again with the aim of strengthening Hungarian identity and Hungarian national solidarity, improving Hungarian language proficiency of the diaspora community, and encouraging activities within Hungarian communities and maintaining communication with Hungary. Last year, 100 scholarship winners had the chance to travel to 24 countries of 5 continents from approximately HUF 1 billion fund.

Now, the list of the programme’s target countries was expanded, among others Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are included as well. The scholarship winners will be in the southern hemisphere between 1 May 2015 and 31 October 2015, and in the northern hemisphere between 1 August 2015 and 31 May 2016.

A new initiative is the programme aimed at supporting the Hungarian diaspora of the Carpathian Basin, which follows the structure of the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Programme. Its target area will be the territories of the Monarchy, including parts of Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and South Poland.

According to the plans, 50 young Hungarians will be sent to these areas; the call for applications will be announced in March. For the programme, which foreseeably will be named after Hungarian poet Petőfi HUF 350 million will be made available.

According to Mr Potápi, the aim of the programme will be to strengthen the Hungarian identity of the ever decreasing Hungarian population living in the diaspora and supporting the creation of social networks for them.
The Minister of State also talked about the Mikes Kelemen programme, the aim of which is to collect the library heritage of the diaspora in an organized manner, to transport the books to Hungary and to foresee their appropriate utilisation.

The donation of a total of 100 thousand books collected between 1 January and 30 September 2014 arrived at 13 collection points of 7 countries on three continents (North America, South America and Australia). In Hungary, the National Széchenyi Library will be responsible for the books, second copies will be given to libraries and schools in the Carpathian Basin – Mr Potápi said.

(Prime Minister's Office)