Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze says that Hungary’s decision to block the Ukraine-NATO Commission at the ministerial level creates a dangerous precedent in NATO’s cooperation with partner countries, the government portal has reported.
“By making Ukraine-NATO relations hostage to bilateral issues with Ukraine, the Hungarian government opens the Pandora’s box and creates a threatening precedent for the future cooperation of the Alliance with partners,” Klympush-Tsintsadze noted during a meeting with NATO Deputy Secretary-General Rose Gottemoeller at the NATO headquarters, touching upon the issue of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations and Hungary’s decision.
The deputy premier said that by developing the mechanisms for the implementation of the Law “On Education”, the Ukrainian side will comply with the previously stated commitments to implement the recommendations of the Venice Commission, and is open for consultations with the Hungarian minority in Ukraine and with the Hungarian government.
It was reported that on February 12, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that NATO planned to hold a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine defense ministers on February 14-15, but Hungary vetoed it and the Alliance secretary-general told the member states the meeting will not take place.
As was reported, the Ukrainian law on education came into force on September 28, 2017. Among other things, the law stipulates that the state language is a language of learning at educational institutions, but one or several subjects in two or more languages, namely, the state language, English and other European Union official languages can be taught in compliance with the educational program. People who belong to ethnic minorities are guaranteed the right for learning in the native language along with the Ukrainian language in separate groups of municipal pre-school and primary school institutions.
On September 26, Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced it would block Ukraine’s rapprochement with the European Union because of the law on education. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry sent the law to the Venice Commission for vetting. On December 8, the Ukrainian Education and Science Ministry reported that the Venice Commission had not supported Hungary’s accusation of narrowing the rights of national minorities in the article on the language of instruction in Ukraine’s law on education. Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science declared its readiness to implement the recommendations of the commission and developed three models for the implementation of the language article in the law “On General Secondary Education.”
