Hungary is asking Ukraine to return the rights of its national minority in Zakarpattia that were in place until 2015.

Source: Ukrinform, quoting Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó at a joint briefing with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and Andrii Yermak, head of the Office of the President, following the talks in Uzhhorod

Quote: “Since 2017, laws have been adopted that have reduced the rights of the Hungarian minority [in Ukraine – ed.]. In December, the Parliament passed a law that stopped this. But we have a request – maybe it’s too much, and you will think I’m being impolite – but we ask that the Hungarian minority be given back all the rights it had before 2015. We are not asking for anything else.”

Details: Szijjártó said that the delegations of the two countries met to restore good neighbourly relations. He said that the Hungarian side formulated a request in 11 points: in particular, the restoration of the status of a national school, the possibility of obtaining matriculation certificates in Hungarian, and the use of Hungarian in public life.

As Szijjártó said, the commission was instructed to agree on these issues and develop proposals for the ministries as soon as possible.

Background:

On 29 January, Andrii Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that negotiations with the Hungarian Foreign Minister showed that Ukraine and Hungary both want to organise a meeting at the highest level.

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