Dual Hungarian citizenship doesn’t threaten Ukrainian unity, MP says

Berehove (Beregszász), April 8 (MTI) – The government understands and respects Ukraine’s stand on the matter of dual citizenship, but Hungarian double citizenship does not stand counter to Ukraine’s unity, the head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee said on Saturday.

“Our Ukrainian partners agree on this point,” Zsolt Németh told a general meeting of the Hungarian Cultural Association of Transcarpathia (KMKSZ) in Berehove (Beregszász) in western Ukraine.

If another citizenship runs counter to Ukrainian unity, that is none of our concern, but we are certain that dual Hungarian-Ukrainian citizenship does not threaten the unity of Ukraine, Németh told the meeting.

This is why we’ve agreed with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on signing a bilateral agreement on the question, which is an “extraordinarily welcome development”, he added.

Németh said legal restrictions on the use of minority languages and the harassment of Hungarian institutions in Transcarpathia are unacceptable and contradict the 1991 Hungarian-Ukrainian Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation. Hungary is closely observing the situation of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, he said, while acknowledging local Hungarians’ own initiative to gather 65,000 signatures protesting the planned legislation affecting minority rights.

He recommended that the local Hungarians draft an action plan as the Hungarian minority in Vojvodina have done.

Source: MTI