Hungary, Romania stand together against Ukraine education law, says Hungarian FM

It is “natural and normal” that Hungary and Romania are speaking out together against Ukraine’s new education law, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told MTI on Monday.

Ukraine’s new rules on education banning post-primary-level education in minority languages were signed into law by the president last week.

The law infringes on the association agreement reached between the EU and Ukraine, which Hungary and Romania had supported, Szijjártó told MTI by phone in Cluj (Kolozsvar) during an official visit. The two countries now “feel they have been stabbed in the back”, he added.

It poses a “serious danger” that bills to amend the citizenship law and the language law are currently before the Ukrainian parliament, he said.

He said that ignoring repeated calls by both Hungary and Romania, Ukraine had enacted the new education law which seriously violates the rights of minorities.

There are more than half a million Hungarians and Romanians living in Ukraine, Szijjártó noted, adding that this explains why Hungary and Romania are acting together on the matter. 

The new education law contrenes Ukraine’s constitution in granting more rights to certain minorities than to others, Szijjártó said. As regards the amendment to the language law, Szijjártó said that if adopted by Ukraine’s parliament, the right of the Hungarian and Romanian minorities to use their mother tongue would be substantially restricted.

“This is why it is important that the two countries are now acting together on the matter,” Szijjártó said, adding that “this could send a clear a message to the Ukrainian parliament that passing further amendments would further curb the rights of the country’s minorities”.