Zoltan Balog stressed the importance of minorities in Hungarian society at an event on Monday.
Human Resources Minister Zoltan Balog awarded the prize "For ethnic minorities" to professionals working for ethnic minorities in Hungary on Monday in Budapest, MTI reported. Gyorgy Ando, Antal György Dioszegi, Mrs Gyorgy Gmoser, Sandor Kaszas, Trajan Kreszta, Gusztav Nagy, Gyula Rezmuves, Johann Schuth, Konrad Sutarski, Mrs Istvan Szili and Peter Szoke received the decoration in recognition of their work in various fields for ethnic Romanians, Roma, Bulgarians, Slovaks, Germans and Poles in Hungary. The Roszica Bulgarian Folk Ensemble and the Tokol South Slavic Folk Ensemble were also decorated.
Balog said that having a network of institutions strengthen the 13 minority communities in Hungary is in the whole country's interest. The number of such institutions has grown nearly threefold since 2010, he noted. The minorities' rich culture, historic roots and their traditions are an integral part of the country's culture, he said. Hungary wants to set an example to countries where ethnic minorities face a less stable and nurturing environment, Balog said, citing Ukraine as an example, where he said public education in Hungarian was in jeopardy.
