Three reforms that have been carried out in Ukraine are negative for the ethnic Hungarians living in the country. This was stated by the Hungarian ambassador to Ukraine Istvan Idyarto in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, in Ukraine at the moment there are three reforms, which, incidentally, all three are very negative for Hungarians: education reform, language use and administrative reform. Somehow these three, in a certain sense broad-minded, very progressive, very European reforms cause a permanent deterioration in the rights of minorities. This is the main problem, ”said Idyarto.
According to the diplomat, Hungary will maintain its veto at the ministerial-level meetings of the Ukraine-NATO Commission until it sees progress on the Ukrainian side in securing minority rights. “Of course, Hungary is not happy with this ministerial veto of the Ukraine-NATO Commission. But until we see some progress from the Ukrainian side, we must keep it, ”he explained.
In addition, Idyarto pointed out that Hungary’s support for granting Ukraine the status of a partner in NATO’s enhanced capabilities program demonstrated that it never had the intention of blocking the Ukrainian path to the Alliance.
“I think this situation with the expanded opportunities partnership demonstrated that we never had the intention to block the Ukrainian path to NATO. What we are doing is blocking a political institution, an advisory body in cooperation between NATO and Ukraine at the ministerial level, in order to express our serious concern over the situation with the rights of minorities in Ukraine, ”he said.
The ambassador also added that the NATO Alliance is absolutely not alien to such principles and rights as democracy, economy, including human rights and minority rights.
“This is why we wanted to send a very serious signal that something is wrong with the rights of minorities in Ukraine, and Ukraine should return to the policy it pursued before the adoption of the Law“ On Education ”, the Law“ On Higher Education ”and the Law“ On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state language ”. These are three laws that were sharply criticized by the Hungarian side, ”Iydyarto said.
According to him, from the very beginning, during the adoption and immediately after the adoption of these laws, Ukraine began to use political arguments and the situation with the protection of minority rights has become a highly politicized topic.
“We hope that we will be able to return this discussion to the legal field, to talk about the protection of minorities. We can sweep aside, get rid of political arguments, and then we can achieve something, «the diplomat concluded.