Minister Péter Szijjártó has once again turned to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe with relation to the plight of Transcarpathian Hungarians, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Wednesday.

In his letter, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade informed the Secretary General of the Council of Europe concerning the fact that despite the fact that the Venice Commission’s recommendations with relation to the Education Act were issued six months ago, Ukraine’s Parliament and the Ukrainian Government have still not implemented them. Ukrainian Parliament has still not voted on suspending the Act, which grossly restricts the rights of the Hungarian minority to receive education in its native language, and Ukrainian leaders have still not begun negotiations with minority representatives concerning the Education Act.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister informed Thorbjørn Jagland that in addition to education, Ukraine is also stripping minorities of the rights they have been previously afforded in other fields, in view of the fact that current proposals for the amendment of the Language Act also grossly restrict the rights of national minorities to use their native languages within the fields of official administration and cultural life.

Furthermore, the proposed Nationality Bill put forward by President Petro Poroshenko would strip dual nationals of their Ukrainian citizenship, which is something that everyone born in Ukraine is entitled to by law, the Minister wrote.

Mr. Szijjártó reminded the Secretary General of the Council of Europe that in recent months Hungary has put forward several proposals in the interests of resolving the situation, but these have not received a response from Ukraine, the statement reads.

The Minister asked Thorbjørn Jagland to continue to closely monitor events in Ukraine, and to help improve the situation of national minorities in every possible manner.

(MTI)