institutions have repeatedly called on Slovakia to pass new legislation to balance its strict regulations mandating Slovak as the official language. The draft legislation, which now goes to parliament for debate and a vote, would grant minority languages equal status with Slovak in towns and villages with minority populations over 20 percent of the total. Members of minorities would then be entitled to use their language in all official dealings with state government and local government institutions. „The government discussed and approved a proposal of the law on the use of languages of ethnic minorities,“ the government said on Wednesday in a communique. One of the four parties in the government is the SMK, representing Slovakia‘s 500,000-member Hungarian minority. The SMK and its three coalition partner had submitted separate proposals and failed for several months to agree on a formula for the legislation. The previous Slovak government of Premier Vladimír Mečiar had been repeatedly criticised for backsliding on democracy and poor treatment of Slovakia‘s ethnic Hungarians. The government of Mikuláš Dzurinda has pledged to get Slovakia back on track to European integration. Slovak opposition parties have launched a petition for a referendum on the law‘s passage, hoping to have it voted down. Three-hundred and fifty thousand signatures must be collected for a referendum to be called.