March 28, 2011, 7:51 CET

By MTI
The government is preparing a strategy to stop the assimilation of ethnic Hungarians living in the West, the co-chair of a Permanent Hungarian Conference (MAERT) subcommittee told MTI on Saturday.

Szabolcs Bihari said the strategy is planned to be completed by September and it will be part of a comprehensive nation policy to be developed by the end of the year.

Zsuzsanna Repas, Hungary's deputy state secretary in charge of nation policy, said after the meeting of the MAERT subcommittee in charge of ethnic Hungarian communities living abroad that Hungarians in the West have very different living conditions and face different problems from ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring countries.

Bihari said families, the church and Hungarian organisations abroad play the most important parts in maintaining ethnic Hungarian communities in the West. Further training for second and third-generation Hungarians, weekend schools and other education programmes were discussed at the meeting, Bihari said.

The greatest problem is the shortage of Hungarian priests in the Catholic Church abroad, which may lead to a deterioration of communities, he said. Hungarian organisations have an important role in maintaining the community as well as in promoting the image of Hungary abroad, he added.

An estimated 2-2.5 million Hungarians live in the West. Saturday's meeting was attended by representatives of communities from North and South America and Australia.

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