Fidesz not to back Ukrainian govt party’s admission to EPP

Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party will not support the Ukrainian governing party’s admission to the European People’s Party (EPP) as long as Ukraine fails to amend its education law to guarantee mother-tongue education to ethnic minorities from kindergarten to university, Zsolt Németh, the head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said on Saturday.

The law violates the Council of Europe’s framework agreement on minorities, Ukraine’s EU association agreement and the Hungarian-Ukrainian basic treaty alike, he told a press conference.

“Ukraine should be halted before it is too late,”

Németh said, referring to the Ukrainian language, citizenship and church bills “that are already in the pipeline” and may “further aggravate what is already an alarming situation”.

Németh, of ruling Fidesz, expressed hope that Ukraine would be stopped on the road which destabilises its western region and endangers the future of central Europe.

Hungary continues to be prepared for an expert dialogue,

and will use every possible bilateral and multilateral channel to convince Ukraine about the need to amend its education law, he said.

As we wrote on Friday, Ukraine will not change Hungarian nationality education until decision of Venice Commission.

Source: MTI