Hungary will lift veto for conduction of Ukraine-NATO commission if official Kyiv returns Zakarpattia Hungarians a right to obtain the education in their mother tongue, as Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s Foreign Minister, said, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
“It was clear, it was absolutely clear since September 2017. First thing: the existing rights of the Hungarian minorities in terms of education should be returned,” Szijjártó said at the Warsaw forum on security on Wednesday, on October 24, answering the question about necessary conditions to cease blockage of Ukraine-NATO commission.
In addition, Hungary demands to prolong the transition period at least until 2023, to exclude private schools from the law and involve the Hungarian community of Zakarpattia to the discussion.
“If these criteria are fulfilled, we will be glad to lift veto,” Szijjártó supposes.
The new law on education was signed by Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko on September 25, 2017. In particular, it introduces a 12-year-long school program and limits the number of subjects taught in the languages of national minorities. This particular decision evoked outrage in Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Hungary. Budapest even threatened to slow down the process of Ukraine’s integration with the EU.
Ukraine sent the text of the new legislation to the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission; meanwhile, the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) announced that it failed to “ensure the necessary balance between the country’s state language and the languages of its ethnic minorities.”
Due to this conflict, Hungary imposed a veto at the holding of the Ukraine-NATO commission in Brussels at the foreign ministers level.
