EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - It seldom makes the headlines, but to anyone who follows these things, it's obvious - relations between Slovakia and Hungary could hardly be worse. It's no exaggeration to call it a kind of cold war.

On the face of it, this is odd. Two EU states should not find themselves in such a dysfunctional relationship, for this is precisely what the EU was set up to prevent. The EU, after all, is the best conflict resolution mechanism that Europe has ever had, yet here it has simply stopped working.

"The EU as conflict resolution mechanism only works when those involved want it to work"

Before accession, both states - the EU has member states, not "nations" - were required to sort out their bilateral relations, which to a large extent was done. But potential for trouble remained, overwhelmingly because as between Slovakia and Hungary, state and nation do not coincide.

There is a small Slovak minority in Hungary, maybe 200,000 strong or 2 percent of the population and there is a rather larger Hungarian minority in Slovakia, making up over 10 percent of the population.