Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka states that the agreements with Hungary do not introduce any fundamentally new elements, but rather involve the implementation of the already adopted Action Plan on the protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities in Ukraine, with minor changes.
"We and the Hungarians have finally heard each other. This is a major change. Literally, because we had an extremely constructive dialogue. Last year, we approved the Action Plan on national minorities, which is part of our commitments within the first negotiation cluster, 'Fundamentals.' Now Hungary has agreed to proceed within the framework of this Plan. According to the action plan, we will implement it in 2026-2027," Kachka told reporters on Friday in Kyiv.
According to him, educational issues could be regulated by Ukraine as early as 2026, with the rest to follow in 2027.
Kachka said that no substantive changes to the European Union's benchmarks regarding national minorities need to be made in connection with the agreements with Hungary.
"We are giving Hungarians a clear guarantee that our vision for implementing the action plan aligns with theirs," he said.
As reported, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar stated that in three weeks, a comprehensive agreement had been reached with Ukraine regarding the expansion of the linguistic, educational, cultural, and political rights of the 100,000-strong Hungarian minority-something his predecessor, Viktor Orbán, had been unable to achieve in ten years. According to him, Ukraine agreed to restore the school system for national minorities and to expand the use of the Hungarian language in education.
On June 4, Ukraine's Minister of Education and Science, Oksen Lisovyi, stated that the agreements with Hungary in the field of education do not represent anything new for Ukraine. According to him, Ukraine ensures the operation of schools, funds schools with Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Slovak, and Bulgarian as languages of instruction, distributes textbooks, and will maintain and expand these opportunities.
