Venice Commission head to follow up on Ukraine education law recommendations

Gianni Buquicchio, the president of the Venice Commission, will take a role in following up on the body’s recommendations on the Ukrainian public education law, the head of the Hungarian parliament’s foreign affairs committee said after meeting Buquicchio.

Hungary expects Ukraine to comply with the recommendations which the Council of Europe’s advisory body issued last December, Zsolt Németh said. The government would like private schools to be exempt from the law, and that the contested regulations not be implemented for another five years, he said.

Hungary will continue to block Ukrainian initiatives at international organisations as the UN and NATO, Németh said.

László Brenzovics, head of the Hungarian Cultural Federation in Transcarpathia (KMKSZ), also attended the meeting. Although Ukraine has made promises to comply with the recommendations, there is “no sign of actual action taken”, he said.

The Ukrainian parliament passed amendments to its public education law last September, limiting minority language education to kindergarten and primary school levels.

The Venice Commission issued recommendations on the law in December, proposing that Ukraine execute changes to it.

As we wrote last week, 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, read more HERE.

Source: MTI