Recalling that in March 1995 the two countries signed a mutual agreement on the protection of the Croat minority in Hungary and the Hungarian minority in Croatia, Reiner assessed this as significant because, as he said, 21 years later that agreement was being implemented and was not just a dead letter.
"We have developed a model in Croatia to protect national minorities which we think is one of the best in Europe. Minorities enjoy a high standard and every minority has its delegate with the right of vote in the Sabor," Reiner underscored. The Hungarian House shows what life for a Hungarian family in Vukovar was like and represents a classroom for future generations of Vukovar Hungarians, he said.
Reiner recalled that 10% of Vukovar Hungarians laid their lives in defence of that town in 1991, adding that that must not be forgotten by Croatians or Hungarians.
"The strength of a city is not in its walls but in the spirit of its defenders and that's how it was here in Vukovar in the not so distant past," Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary Laszlo Koever said. He added that the post-war revival of Vukovar was also a revival of the Hungarian community in that town.
He underlined that Croatians and Hungarians in Vukovar in 1991 wrote a new chapter in their own blood in the 1000-year history of Hungarian-Croatian common fate.
"Along with Croatian patriots, here in Vukovar, according to our information, 52 Hungarians gave their lives for Croatia," Koever said expressing his gratitude to all those who contributed to the post-war revival of the Hungarian community in that town.
The two speakers laid wreaths at the monument in the Homeland Memorial Cemetery and planted a tree of friendship outside the city assembly office.
Reiner and Koever are set to meet officially in the Sabor on Thursday.