Ukraine approved a language bill criticized by national minorities

The Ukrainian Parliament adopted the amendment, intended to warrant students from national minorities specified as Hungarian, Romanian or Polish, the anticipation to learn in their parent tongues in secondary schools which usage a peculiar teaching language and to let their own languages to be utilized in the educational process.

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The decision was taken in a vote on Friday, covering a number of laws on the rights of national minorities, specified as ‘On Local Government’, ‘On Higher Education’, ‘On Education’ (the alleged Education Act), ‘On Safeguarding the functioning of Ukrainian as State’ (the alleged Language Act), ‘On General Secondary Education’, ‘On National Minorities (Communitys) of Ukraine’ and ‘On Media’. The amendment (draft Law No 10288-1) was accepted overall, obtaining 317 votes in favour.

The fresh rules take into account the Council of Europe's expert evaluation and the European Commission's recommendations on the rights of national minorities. Private higher education institutions will have the chance to choose a language of instruction from the authoritative languages of the European Union, while ensuring the teaching of Ukrainian. It is worth noting that the Russian language was excluded from these regulations. The provisions are to apply indefinitely, not for a period of 5 years as suggested by the Venice Commission.

The bill guarantees the right to survey in the language of a national number alongside the state language for people whose native languages are authoritative EU languages, and they began studying before 1 September 2018. Any provisions introduced after the language law will not apply to them. Languages specified as Polish, Hungarian, Romanian or Bulgarian will be protected in the educational process.

In addition, in classes conducted in national number languages which are authoritative languages of the EU, students have the right to usage the national number language alongside the national language. Learning Ukrainian as a state language will be compulsory in all educational institutions, while maintaining the ability to conduct education in EU languages.

Individuals from national minorities who learn in the language of their number in state, municipal or organization educational institutions may receive general and specialized secondary education in their languages, but for subjects concerning Ukrainian language, literature and past of Ukraine and classes from the Defence of Ukraine, which will be conducted exclusively in Ukrainian.

The bill besides opens up the anticipation of utilizing languages of national minorities in electoral materials during the campaign, but they must be duplicated in Ukrainian. Publications in Crimean-Tatar languages, indigenous peoples and national minorities which are authoritative EU languages are exempt from the work to issue at least 50% of titles in Ukrainian. In addition, it will be possible to broadcast programmes and programmes in the languages of national minorities, up to 70% of the broadcasting time.

Prior to that, the Ukrainian authorities had expressed their willingness to amend the rules on the rights of national minorities, including the Hungarian number in Zakarpacie, to facilitate integration with the European Union. The issue of the rights of national minorities was 1 of the main points of negotiations on Ukraine's membership of the EU. As part of the reforms, the ultimate Council of Ukraine adopted a European integration law on national minorities, which provides, inter alia, for the anticipation of national minorities creating the media and beginning specialised booksellers. The protection of Hungarian rights in Zakarpacie is 1 of the 7 key points of the improvement that Ukraine agreed to before starting EU membership talks. Earlier, the Deputy Head of the Hungarian Ministry of abroad Affairs stressed that this issue was an obstacle to Ukraine's integration with the EU and NATO.