Viktória Ferenc, an MEP of Hungary's ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat (KDNP) alliance, said: "The time has come for Ukraine to fully restore the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians and other minorities."
Commenting on Wednesday's session in the European Parliament's EU-Ukraine Association Council, where MEPs held talks with Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's justice minister and deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Ferenc said "Ukraine must put in practice its commitments concerning ethnic minority rights".
Ferenc said the draft amendment to Ukraine's education law aimed to "create a Ukrainian language environment" in schools was "concerning", adding that passing the proposal would be "tantamount to violating human rights" and to curbing the right of ethnic minorities to using their mother tongue.
Under the amendment, she suggested, ethnic minority languages could only be used in the classroom while Ukrainian would be mandatory outside and between classes, as well as in staff rooms and across school grounds.
The MEP said she hoped that the Ukrainian government and Ukraine's minorities could "cooperate constructively" to restore minority rights in their country.