Romanian becomes regional language in Bila Tserkva in Zakarpattia region

A posting on the official Web site of MP Hennadiy Moskal reads that
such a decision was approved at the 12th session of Bila Tserkva Village
Council on August 14, according to the law of Ukraine on the principles
of the state language policy.

Moskal received a letter in Romanian language in response to his
inquiry to the head of the village council, George Berinde. A scan of
the document is available on the MP’s Web site.

Bila Tserkva is one of five villages in Rakhiv district where the
majority of the population is of Romanian origin. According to the
population census in 2001, 11.6% of the population of Rakhiv district
were Romanian speakers (10,500 people).

As reported, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, passed the
language bill on July 3, 2012. On August 8, 2012, Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych signed the bill into law and instructed the Cabinet of
Ministers of Ukraine to form a working group for the development of
proposals to improve the language legislation of Ukraine. The law took
effect on August 10, 2012. According to it, a language may be provided
with the status of a regional language if the number of people
considering it their native language exceeds 10% of the total population
of the region.

Odesa regional and city councils, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv,
Zaporizhia, Sevastopol, Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk city councils, Krasny
Luch Town Council (Luhansk region), Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Kherson,
Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regional councils have approved a decision
to declare Russian a regional language.

The Crimean parliament instructed the Crimean government to draw up
and submit for consideration its proposals on the implementation of the
language law by October 10, 2012.

Hungarian has been made a regional language in the town of Berehove
(Zakarpattia), and Moldovan in the village of Tarasivtsi in Chernivtsi
region.