Ukrainian parliament passes law on national minority educational rights

The Ukrainian parliament approved the bill on the educational rights of national minorities, which ensures the educational rights of indigenous peoples of Ukraine and persons belonging to national minorities and the legal security of ethnic minority schools—the Ukrainian press has reported on Monday. This paved the way for the Hungarian government to approve the letter required to open negotiations on two groups of EU accession chapters with Ukraine.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán announced Monday morning that they expect the Ukrainian parliament to approve the bill on the educational rights of national minorities that day, adding that “we are awaiting news from Kyiv.” The bill will immediately be sent to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his signature. Anita Orbán indicated that they will monitor the implementation of the legislation.

The previous Hungarian government initially supported the launching of accession negotiations with Ukraine, but later became hesitant and even blocked the process. Ukraine was eventually granted candidate status in 2023—a decision made by member states unanimously, which is typical for major steps in the accession process—and the Orbán government subsequently agreed to the EU’s negotiating framework. Afterwards it blocked the opening of the first cluster of chapters, even though Ukraine was ready for it, according to the European Commission’s assessment.

The first cluster was opened this past June, after Ukraine and the new Hungarian government reached an agreement on protecting the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia. This was then added to the first cluster as an interim milestone. Negotiations on the second group of chapters began in July. Ukraine and the governments of certain member states would have opened all groups of chapters, but the Hungarian government blocked this in September. As we reported earlier, this may have been due to underlying disputes about the agreement on minority rights.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that the Hungarian government might agree to the “procedural, but symbolic” step—the exchange of letters—regarding two chapters. This is a prerequisite for opening these two groups of chapters, but is not the same as opening them. Shortly thereafter, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha expressed his gratitude for what the Hungarian News Agency, MTI described as a “green light” at the preparatory level for opening the two chapters. Speaking on Monday, Anita Orbán addressed the approval of the letters, which are “necessary for an intergovernmental conference taking place. What is very important after this is implementation; we will monitor that” on both the Hungarian and intergovernmental sides-she said.