Magyar announces agreement with Ukraine on rights of Hungarian minority

Hungary has reached a comprehensive agreement with Ukraine on the expansion of the linguistic, educational, cultural, and political rights of the Hungarian minority, Péter Magyar announced on Wednesday. In the Facebook video, the Prime Minister noted that within three weeks, they managed to achieve what Viktor Orbán’s government had failed to do in ten years.

“The agreement is the result of a few weeks of intensive negotiations at the expert level between Hungary and Ukraine, in which the political organizations of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia and representatives of the churches also participated. It is a great joy for me to be able to announce, one day before the Day of National Unity, that the Ukrainian government has committed to incorporating the negotiated measures into its legal system in the near future, and that our fellow Hungarians in Transcarpathia will thus enjoy much broader educational, cultural, linguistic, and political rights than they have had so far” Magyar wrote in his post.

According to the Prime Minister, Ukraine’s commitments will also be reflected in the action plan agreed upon with the European Union. Once this happens, the Hungarian government will agree to opening the first cluster of accession negotiations with Ukraine.

“Hungary continues to oppose accelerated EU accession negotiations. If Ukraine manages to close all 33 accession chapters within 10 or 15 years, our country will hold a legally binding referendum on the matter,” Magyar added.

According to the Hungarian government’s report, the Ukrainian government has agreed to restore the system of schools for ethnic minorities. “The Hungarian language will not only be freely used in the educational process but in all areas of school communication. Under the agreement, the Ukrainian government’s commitments also extend to the area of language rights. In the future, the use of Hungarian national symbols will be permitted in communities where Hungarians make up more than 10 percent of the population”.

“The changes affecting the language, educational, and cultural rights of our fellow Hungarians in Transcarpathia represent a breakthrough, as in the future, members of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine will have the right to freely preserve their national traditions and customs. They will have the right to celebrate their national holidays and historic events, their nation's culture, and religious holidays in Hungarian. They will also have the right to establish national, cultural, and educational institutions,” stated Péter Magyar.

Foreign Minister Anita Orbán announced in mid-May that expert-level consultations had begun between Hungary and Ukraine, aimed at settling the question of the rights of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia. These consultations about the Hungarians in Transcarpathia are another indication that the Tisza government’s foreign policy approach is quite different from that of Fidesz. The first sign of this diplomatic shift was that on behalf of the government, Anita Orbán strongly condemned the Russian drone attack against Transcarpathia, and then promptly summoned the Russian ambassador.