Hungary supports the idea of developing a new law on national minorities in Ukraine after holding appropriate consultations with representatives of national minorities, Ambassador of Hungary to Ukraine István Íjgyártó has said.
Íjgyártó told Interfax-Ukraine that the second thing that Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar mentioned is the development of a new law. Hungary absolutely supports this. He said that the very controversial law on ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a national language contains serious blocking, which was taken from the law on education, its famous seventh article, which refers to minorities.
Thus, the diplomat commented on Bodnar’s opinion that ensuring the rights of national minorities in education can be carried out in the context of private schools, as well as improving Ukrainian legislation within implementing one of the recommendations of the Venice Commission, namely, the development of a new law on national minorities.
According to Íjgyártó, if the Ukrainian side intends to have a number of laws that would protect the rights of minorities, this is more than satisfactory for Hungary government.
The ambassador said that in order to avoid the problems that were with the law on education, on secondary education and the law on language, if there are consultations with representatives of minorities and an international organization before the adoption of this law, they will absolutely advocate a normal legislative act.
He also noted the idea of creating private schools in Ukraine for representatives of national minorities, saying that the Ukrainian state wants to get rid of responsibility and transfer them to a private system.
He also said that Hungary is already making a contribution to many educational institutions in Zakarpattia for Hungarians. The ambassador said that they are not against any ideas, but they must discuss this. That is why Hungary was in favor of the discussions.
