YABLUNETS (Zhytomyr region) – A national program for the development of Ukrainian as a state language should be adopted before parliamentary elections, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn has said.
“The position of President [Viktor Yanukovych] is that it is
necessary to adopt this national program before the elections,” he told
reporters during his visit to Zhytomyr region on Friday, Aug.24.
Lytvyn stressed the need to envisage funding for this program this year and in the state budget for 2013.
He said that several language bills had been registered in the
Verkhovna Rada and added that the consideration of these documents would
be complicated, “because there will be attempts to rely on the
political process, rather than on a practical result.”
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada passed the law on the principles of state language policy on July 3.
On August 8, President Viktor Yanukovych signed the law and
instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to set up a working group to develop
proposals to improve legislation on the use of languages in Ukraine.
The law came into force on August 10, and it envisages the
possibility of official bilingualism in the regions where the percentage
of representatives of national minorities exceeds 10%.
Parliamentary elections in Ukraine are to be held in October 2012.
