Hungarian ministers discuss Ukraine education law with Ukrainian ministers

Hungary has an interest in having good relations with Ukraine, but will do everything to prevent the curbing of the rights of Transcarpathia (Kárpátalja) Hungarians, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told a press conference on Friday after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin, in Nizhne Solotvino (Alsószlatina) in southwest Ukraine.

At the talks which Hungarian Human Resources Minister Mikls Kásler and Ukrainian Education Minister Liliya Hrynevych also attended, the parties discussed the Ukrainian education law, which Hungary says harms the rights of the Hungarian minorities in the country.

The law, which was approved last September, restricted public education in minority languages to kindergarten and primary school levels.

Szijjártó said that bilateral relations, which were previously “mostly about infrastructure investments and opening new border crossings”, were “hijacked” by the education law. “This is not right, most of our countries’ interests are the same,” Szijjártó said.

Hungary does not want to challenge Ukrainian methods to optimise the teaching of the country’s official Ukrainian language, Szijjártó said. “All we ask is that this should not be done to the detriment of minority language education,” he said.

Hungary welcomes Ukraine’s decision to adopt the Venice Commission’s opinion of the law.

The Council of Europe’s advisory body issued its opinion on the Ukrainian education law at the end of 2017.