Hungary welcomes Ukraine’s draft law strengthening Hungarian minority rights

Hungary welcomed on Friday Ukraine’s move to submit to parliament a draft law that strengthens the education rights of the ethnic Hungarian minority.

A long-running dispute over minority rights had strained relations between Budapest and Kyiv and complicated Hungary’s support for Ukraine’s ambition to join the European Union.

“The draft law strengthens the legal guarantees of education in the Hungarian language and the network of educational institutions,” Prime Minister Peter Magyar said in a Facebook post.

Magyar has taken a less confrontational stance toward Kyiv than his predecessor Viktor Orban, but he too has said that progress in increasing the rights of around 100,000 ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine is a precondition for Budapest’s support for Ukraine’s admission to the EU.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Anita Orban said on Friday that Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Vsevolod Chentsov had informed her that the draft law on education rights would be submitted to the Ukrainian parliament, with a decision expected this month.

“We welcome this step, which was preceded by Hungarian-Ukrainian bilateral talks at expert level in recent weeks and consultations with representatives of the Transcarpathian Hungarian community,” Orban wrote in a Facebook post.

This step comes after a June announcement by Hungary that Hungary and Ukraine had reached an agreement on the linguistic, cultural and educational rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

At that time, Hungary said that once Ukraine includes the terms of that agreement in legislation, as well as its action plan for EU accession talks, Hungary would support opening the first cluster of Ukraine’s accession talks.

Magyar has repeatedly said his government does not support fast-tracked membership talks for Ukraine.