Hungary turns to international organisations over Ukrainian education bill

The Hungarian government is to call on the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the UN and the EU Commissioner for neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations to act on the Ukrainian education bill curbing the right to minority language education, the foreign minister told a press conference on Monday.

It is Hungary’s duty to protect all Hungarians, whether they live in the country or abroad, Péter Szijjártó said.

Under an amendment approved by the Ukrainian parliament last Tuesday but not yet signed by President Petro Poroshenko, education in minority languages in Ukraine would be restricted to kindergartens and primary schools.

Commenting on the changes, Szijjártó said the amendment threatened the operations of a significant number of Hungarian schools in western Ukraine’s Transcarpathia/Kárpátalja region.

The minister said the legislation was also in violation of Ukraine’s international commitments. He said Hungary was ready to use all international forums to stop the implementation of the “outrageous” bill, which “makes minority language education virtually impossible from the 5th grade upwards”, he said.

Hungary is going to withhold support for all Ukrainian initiatives in international organisations, as well as for causes important to that country, Szijjarto said.