“The future of the cross-border Hungarian peoples is not a matter for negotiation; Ukraine must retract the stipulations of the Education Act that violate the rights of minorities”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared at a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday.
Mr. Szijjártó stressed that Ukraine’s newly amended Education Act also violates the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. In view of the fact that the agreement also states that the right of majorities must be reinforced, Hungary will be initiating a review of the association agreement at the meeting of EU foreign Ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. This requires the convening of the Association Council, and Hungary will be calling for Ukraine’s contravention of the agreement to be put on the Council’s agenda. “The acceptation of the initiative requires a qualified majority”, he added.
“If Ukraine does not take the necessary action, then trade sanctions will come into effect in view of the fact that the association agreement also includes a free trade agreement that has opened European markets to Ukraine. Accordingly, if the contravention of the association agreement is proven, it will result in economic and trade sanctions”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade emphasised, highlighting the fact that Ukraine is planning to introduce further measures in the interests of European integration, but Hungary will be blocking all such action while the Education Act remains in force in its current form.
Mr. Szijjártó recalled that Hungary was one of the first countries to ratify the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union in 2015, and declared that it was a “stab in the back” for Hungary that despite this, on 1 September of this year just four days after the agreement came into force, Kiev adopted new legislation that strips the Hungarian majority in Transcarpathia of rights that have already been afforded to them.
The Minister told reporters that during his talks in Ungvár (Uzhhorod, Ukraine), representatives of the Transcarpathian Hungarian minority, nongovernmental organisation, local Churches and teachers asked Hungary not to back down, and accordingly, instead of negotiation, only the retraction of the Act can result in a solution.
Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the fact that Hungarian language teaching occurs in 71 institutions in Transcarpathia, and the new Act is threatening the very existence of these institutions, with many teachers possibly losing their jobs as result. “According to local citizens, the situation with regard to education was better under the Soviet Union”, he added.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister said the argument according to which the new legislation is necessary because of minorities’ poor command of the Ukrainian language was a “piece of cynical fiction”, and stressed that he would be disproving this on all international forums. “Native language education and the command of the Ukrainian language have absolutely nothing to do with each other, and the latter can also be developed parallel to Hungarian language teaching”, he said.
Mr. Szijjártó told the press that he would also be discussing the issue with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, who will be arriving in Budapest for an official visit on Thursday, and declared: “The road to Europe for Ukraine not only leads through Hungary from a geographic perspective”.
“The only possible solution is the retraction of the part of the Act that violated the rights of minorities, and the Hungarian Government will fight to achieve this goal”, he added.