Hungary Announces Breakthrough in Talks with Ukraine

The bill could strengthen guarantees for education in Hungarian in Transcarpathia.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orban welcomed the submission to the Verkhovna Rada of a bill on the educational rights of national minorities, saying that she expected it to be adopted as early as this month.

Orban wrote about this on Facebook.

The head of Hungary’s Foreign Ministry noted that Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Vsevolod Chentsov, had personally informed her about the submission of the relevant bill to the Verkhovna Rada.

“We welcome this step, which was preceded by bilateral Ukrainian-Hungarian professional consultations held over the past few weeks, as well as consultations with representatives of the Hungarian community of Transcarpathia. The adoption of the bill could strengthen the legal guarantees for education in Hungarian as a native language, as well as the network of educational institutions,” the minister stressed.

According to her, the Ukrainian parliament is expected to make a decision on the bill as early as this month. Orban added that Hungary remains interested in dialogue and in achieving results “that will be tangible in the everyday life of the Hungarian community of Transcarpathia.”

She thanked the Ukrainian and Hungarian specialists involved in this matter for their constructive, promising and professional work over the past few weeks.

At the same time, the head of the Foreign Ministry stated that the new Hungarian government had “managed to achieve more real results in strengthening the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia” in a few months than the government of Viktor Orban had in 10 years.