Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard
16:20:38
24/01/2017
Korrespondent.net
The Foreign Minister of Hungary declared that Budapest won’t tolerate infringements of Hungarian-speakers in Ukraine.
Hungary won’t tolerate an infringement of the linguistic rights of the Hungarian minority of Ukraine, which is possible in the event of the adoption of the law “About state language”. This was stated by the Foreign Minister of Hungary Peter Szijjarto in an interview to the Kommersant newspaper.
“In November of last year the prime minister of Ukraine Vladimir Groysman visited Budapest, and we made it clearly that we won’t tolerate any amendments – neither to the law on education, nor to the law on the use of language – that would worsen situation of minorities,” he said.
Szijjarto noted that in the event p of a deterioration in the lives of linguistic minorities of Ukraine, Hungary will discuss it at the level of the EU.
“It is not an intra-Ukrainian subject, but a question that has value far beyond Ukraine. We have to protect minorities and apply European standards, including concerning Ukraine,” stressed the minister, who hopes that the bill on the status of the Ukrainian language won’t be adopted by Kiev.
About 150,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Ukraine, predominantly in Transcarpathia.
Earlier it was reported that in the Verkhovna Rada the bill “About State Language” was registered, which provides exclusive use of the Ukrainian language practically in all spheres of life.
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