A special commission will be set up under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to analyse Hungary's proposal on the rights of national minorities, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said at a joint press conference with the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, and his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in Uzhhorod, Yevropeyska Pravda reports.
According to Kuleba, a significant part of the meeting was devoted to t national minorities. Szijjarto presented a list of issues of interest to the Hungarian side.
"We asked the Hungarian side to provide us with an exhaustive list of questions that it has on the issue of protecting the rights of minorities, and we received this list. We have agreed that under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we will assemble a special commission, which has one very simple task: in 10 days it should submit to the governments of both countries a concrete understanding of how and which questions from the list we have received need to be resolved or has already been resolved so that we can reach the final clarity," Kuleba said.
The minister noted that previously, the issue of national minorities was discussed in the context of Ukraine's membership in the EU. Now, the sides are willing to discuss it at the bilateral level in order to "finally resolve the issue, which has already been resolved in principle in the interests of all national minorities."
Hungary's position on the rights of national minorities in Ukraine
· Hungary believes that the rights of national minorities in Ukraine are being violated, in particular those of the Hungarian minority. Budapest is demanding that Kyiv restore the rights that Hungarians in Transcarpathian Region had enjoyed before 2015, including the right to study and take exams in Hungarian.
· In November last year, Ukraine handed Hungary a detailed roadmap for resolving the national minority issue.
· In December, the Ukrainian parliament adopted as a basis and as a whole the draft law 10288-1 on amendments to certain laws of Ukraine that take into account the expert opinion of the Council of Europe and its bodies on the rights of national minorities (communities) in certain areas.