Ukraine sees prospect of settling Hungarian minority issues

The Ukrainian authorities are in dialogue with the Hungarian side regarding the issue of national minorities, seeing the prospect of its settlement.

This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna, who spoke on the air of the national telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We have also... started a dialogue with the Hungarian side and see the prospect of settling issues that concern the Hungarian national minority, issues that arise regarding the educational process. With our new minister, we managed to resume dialogue with the Hungarian side," said Stefanishyna.

She noted that the presence in the seven recommendations of the European Commission of the bloc that concerns ethnic minorities helps Ukraine as it becomes impossible to manipulate the issue in NATO, since it is the EU that evaluates Ukraine's policy and provides conclusions.

As reported by Ukrinform, in June 2022 Ukraine received the status of a candidate for EU membership. At the same time, the European Commission put forward seven recommendations that need to be implemented to proceed with further European integration.

On March 21, the Verkhovna Rada appointed Oksen Lisovyi to the post of Minister of Education and Science.

Since 2017, Hungary has been blocking meetings of the Ukraine-NATO Commission at the ministerial level, demanding that Ukraine change its policy regarding the rights of Hungarian minorities. In particular, the Hungarian side has issues with Ukraine's law on education, which obliges children representing national minorities to start studying in the state language (Ukrainian) from secondary school.