The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has fully adopted the recommendations of the Venice Commission regarding the language article of the law "On Education" and agrees that the transition period for the implementation of the article should be extended until 2023, Education Minister Lilia Hrynevych has said.

Hrynevych voiced this position at a meeting with Romanian Ambassador to Ukraine Christian Leon Turcanu, the press service of the Ministry of Education said on Thursday.

"We are grateful to the Venice Commission for its prompt and professional work and ready to implement these recommendations. It is important to understand that we are not doing this in connection with the reaction of individual countries, our priority task is to give every Ukrainian child, regardless of his nationality or place of residence, a high level of knowledge of the Ukrainian language. To do this, we need everyone to be ready to implement the article, and also take into account the specifics of teaching for the national communities of different language groups," the minister explained.

She added that Ukraine would prepare a step-by-step map for the implementation of the language article.

According to the press service, the issue of finalizing the Protocol on cooperation in the field of education between the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of National Education of Romania was separately discussed at the meeting. The document is planned to be signed this year in Bucharest after the negotiations are over.

"We have revised the last draft of the protocol. On our part, there are mainly editorial changes. From the content side, it is important for us that the agreement be balanced and all provisions based on parity basis," Hrynevych said.

As 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.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent the education law for examination by the Venice Commission.

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.

The 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."

Hrynevych earlier noted that the transition period to the full introduction of the norm on the languages of instruction can be extended from 2020, as it is envisaged now, until 2022, especially for children whose native language does not belong to the Slavic group.