“This has been a stormy year for Hungarian national minorities, of whom the Hungarians in Transcarpathia must face the greatest difficulties because of the Ukrainian Education Act, which continues to be unacceptable”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Wednesday at his annual hearing before Parliament’s National Solidarity Committee.

At the hearing, the Minister thanked all members of the Committee, regardless of their party affiliations, for coming to what in his opinion is a perhaps never before seen consensus on the issue, which is adversely affecting the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia.

He also highlighted the fact that the European Union’s procedure with relation to the issue has also been fair to an unprecedented degree in view of the fact that Brussels has taken a stand in support of Hungary’s three most important expectations. “The first such expectation is that Ukraine cannot remove the rights previously afforded to national minorities, thus including the opportunity to study in their native language, in addition to which minority representatives must be consulted prior to making decisions that affect minorities, and finally that Ukraine must fully implement the recommendations and conclusions of the Venice Commission, which call for the Education Act to be amended”, Mr. Szijjártó reminded the Committee.

Quoting the official opinion published on Monday by the Venice Commission, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade declared that what has occurred cannot be interpreted in any other way than that Ukraine has violated its own constitution and its international obligations. “For this very reason the Hungarian Government will continue to block all international initiatives on the part of Ukraine until the situation is resolved in a manner that is satisfactory to the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia”, he underlined, adding that the conflict between the two countries is not a bilateral one, as also indicated by the fact that the situation was protested in a joint letter together with his Bulgarian, Romanian and Greek counterparts.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that during the past 18 months Hungary has spoken out at every possible forum against the restriction of the rights of national minorities in Ukraine. “This is an issue that we will not let go of”, he declared, also calling attention to the fact that extremely worrying phenomena are being observed within Ukrainian legislation and during the course of everyday life in Ukraine, which indicate that nationalism in Ukraine is spreading in a “dangerous and un-European manner”.

As an example, he mentioned that certain proposals included in the bill on Ukraine’s new Education Act want to make it compulsory for Hungarian newspapers to be bilingual, in addition to which the use of minority native languages by television and radio stations would also be restricted, and Ukraine would become the compulsory language for all theatrical productions. “Furthermore, the bill on the new Nationality Act plans to threaten people who do not disclose or give up their dual citizenship with prison sentences”, he added.

“The recent protests and the vandalising of Hungarian national symbols also prove that nationalism is gaining popularity in Transcarpathia”, the Minister said, pointing out that last week he had called for the OSCE to extend the permanent presence of its special observer mission in Ukraine to Transcarpathia.

Mr. Szijjártó reported on the Government’s cross-border economic development programme, which is helping Hungarians in six countries to prosper on the land of their birth.

6200 winning tender applications have been awarded total funding of 10 billion forints (EUR 31.8 million) in Vojvodina since 2016, in addition to which the Cabinet is also providing 30 billion forints (EUR 95.5 million) in special funding for 23 major agricultural and industrial projects. According to Mr. Szijjártó, 8.5 billion forints have been awarded to 155 applicants in Transcarpathia, a total of 487 million forints has been awarded to 155 applicants in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia and half a billion forints has been paid out with respect to 140 tender applications in Croatian Baranya, in addition to which one billion forints will be distributed in Transylvania this year and a budget of 5 billion forints is available for southern Slovakia.

Mr. Szijjártó also told the Committee that construction work has begun on the new Danube Bridge on the Hungarian-Slovakian border at Komárom (Komárno), which will be followed by the construction of five smaller border crossing pints; five new border crossing points with Austria are being established with the help of EU funding; a new temporary border crossing point on the Hungarian-Ukrainian border cold be opened as soon as January; ten new links have been officially inaugurated along the Hungarian-Romanian border this year, and two new border crossing stations will become available towards both Serbia and Slovenia.

The Minister also reported on the fact that a political agreement has been concluded on preparations for the construction of a high speed rail link between Budapest and Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), with relation to which China is showing great interest with respect to both financing and technology.

During the hearing, the Minister also dealt with several question that had been previously put to him by opposition MPs. Amongst others, he told the Committee that Hungary’s OTP Bank had ordered at least one Hungarian-speaking colleague to be employed at every one of its branch offices in Transylvania, and that information of the bank’s services must also be available in Hungarian.

Committee Chairman Attila Szabolcs (Fidesz) said Hungary should highlight to a greater extent what it is doing to help “true refugees”.

In his reply, the Minister declared that Hungary is making use of practically all possible international forums in the interests of protecting Middle-Eastern Christians, for example. He highlighted the fact that the hypocritical behaviour of the Western world is characterised by the fact that in not one of its resolutions has the Foreign Affairs Council expressed an opinion in support of defending Christian communities. “People are terrified of this, like the Devil from incense”, he added.

Amongst others, István Szávay (Jobbik) called on the Government to prepare well in advance via diplomatic means for the worthy commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the treaty of Trianon.

In his reply, the Foreign Minister said the Government would like to handle this issue with the utmost care to ensure that neither bilateral relations nor “our national pride” suffer any damage. “Accordingly, the Cabinet will be consulting with cross-border Hungarian political parties prior to deciding on any measures”, he added.

(MTI)