11:57 04.05.2018

Hungary continues to block meeting of Ukraine-NATO Commission - Klympush-Tsintsadze

3 min read
Hungary continues to block meeting of Ukraine-NATO Commission - Klympush-Tsintsadze

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze has said that Hungary continues to block the holding of a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission at the level of heads of state and government.

"The decision on holding a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission at the level of heads of state and government has not been adopted yet. Unfortunately, the Hungarians are blocking [the meeting]," she told the 112 Ukraine TV channel on Thursday, May 3.

At the same time, Klympush-Tsintsadze said that Ukraine would continue constructive dialogue and expressed hope that Hungary would change its decision.

She noted that the Ukrainian side was also communicating with other NATO partners regarding Hungary's position.

The blocking of Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic initiatives by Budapest began in late 2017 as a response to the adoption of the law on education, which contains, in particular, a "language article."

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."

A meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission, which was to be held on February 14 or 15 as part of a meeting of defense ministers of all member countries of the alliance, was blocked by Hungary, which applied the right of veto.

In April, Hungary blocked a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission at the level of foreign ministers.

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