“Despite Austria’s protests, construction of the two new blocks of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant will begin in February according to the predetermined schedule”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó confirmed in a statement to the TASS news agency.

The news agency spoke with the Minister during a conference in the Norwegian city of Tromsø, which lies beyond the Arctic Circle, and the interview was published in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

“There can be no question of the fact that everything, including the construction projects, will be realised according to plan and according to the predetermined schedule”, Mr. Szijjártó said, stressing that although the Austrian Government is arguing the European Commission’s decision with regard to the project, this will have no effect on the schedule and everything is moving forward according to plan.

On Monday, Austria announced that it will be initiating legal action against the expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant at the European Court of Justice.

The Russian news agency also asked Mr. Szijjártó about the Ukrainian Education Act, with regard to which the Minister said that Budapest will be raising the issue of the enforcement of the rights of minorities in Ukraine consistently and at various levels, and is prepared to enter into dialogue with Kiev on the issue.

He drew attention to the legal arguments according to which minorities may not be stripped of previously afforded rights. “In this respect the Education Act adopted by Ukrainian Parliament not only violates the bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Hungary, but also several multilateral agreements signed under the auspices of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations. We will be raising this issue consistently at the various meetings and sessions of these organisations”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

“In the meantime, we are prepared to enter into negotiations with the Ukrainian Government, and as the Venice Commission also pointed out, the best solution to the problem would be the amendment of the relative Article of the Ukrainian Education Act”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade added.

Several neighbouring countries, including Hungary, Romania and Poland, have protested against Article 7 on the language of education of the new Ukrainian Education Act signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on 25 September. This part of the legislation, which would otherwise only come into force in September 2020, states that the language of education in Ukraine shall be Ukrainian. Native language education for national minorities will only be permitted until grade four, and only in special classes or groups in schools that are maintained by local governments. From the fifth grade upwards, all subjects will be taught in Ukrainian.

The Venice Commission published its opinion on the Act in mid-December, according to which although Ukraine’s aspirations are fundamentally legitimate, but the strong domestic and international criticism of the restriction of the use of minority languages is well-founded. As the Commission explained, Article 7 of the new legislation differs from the original draft, with regard to which minority representatives were consulted, in addition to which it includes several ambiguities and does not contain the required guidelines for the fulfilment of the country’s international and constitutional commitments.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)