Hungary's foreign minister has revealed that Lamberto Zannier, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s High Commissioner on National Minorities, shares the same concerns as Hungary in relation to Ukraine’s Education Act.
Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the OSCE is the most willing to help from among the international organizations contacted by Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian and Greek diplomats.
“We agreed that everyone must fulfil their international obligations. And in its Association Agreement with the European Union, Ukraine undertook to continuously expand the respect it affords to minority rights, but in contrast the adoption of the new Education Act points in the absolutely opposite direction," Minister Szijjártó said.
“Hungary and the Hungarian government will always stand up for the interests of cross-border Hungarians. We regard this Ukrainian legislative amendment to be unacceptable and will not be satisfied until Transcarpathian Hungarians tell us that the situation is satisfactory to them," he added.
Several neighboring countries have protested Article 7 of the new Ukrainian Education Act signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on September 25th. This part of the new legislation, which will only come into force in September 2020, states that in Ukraine the language of education is Ukrainian and forbids education in fundamental subjects in other languages above the primary level.