The Prime Minister’s Press Chief has informed the kormany.hu government news portal that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and László Brenzovics, President of the Cultural Union of Hungarians in Transcarpathia (KMKSZ), met in Hungary’s Parliament Building on Monday to discuss Ukraine’s new Education Act, “which is having a harmful effect on Ukrainian-Hungarian relations and runs counter to Ukraine’s international commitments”.
At the meeting the parties agreed that the new Education Act recently adopted by the Ukrainian parliament has made education in minority languages impossible – including teaching in Hungarian. This is in contravention of both Ukraine’s constitution and its international commitments, and is having an extremely negative effect on Hungarian-Ukrainian relations, Mr. Havasi said.
The parties also agreed that “Hungary, Ukraine and the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia all have an interest in maintaining good neighbourly relations, but measures such as these are extremely counterproductive”. Hungary has consistently stood up in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and EU integration, and was one of the foremost proponents of Ukrainian citizens being allowed visa-free travel into the European Union. For precisely this reason Mr. Orbán and Mr. Brenzovics regard the decision of the Ukrainian parliament, which is extremely harmful for the Hungarian minority, as particularly unfair.