Hungary, Ukraine Still at Odds Over Ukraine Education Law

2017/10/13 13:05:06

Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, right, and Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin hold a joint press conference following their meeting in Szijjarto's office in Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017

 


By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press

 

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary will continue to withhold its support for Ukraine's further integration with the European Union as long as a new Ukrainian education law remains unchanged, Hungary's foreign minister said Thursday.

 

The education law passed last month specifies that Ukrainian will be the main language used in schools, rolling back the option for lessons to be taught in other languages. Ukraine has some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, mostly in the country's west.

 

We consider the new Ukrainian education law a stab in the back of our country, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said, speaking after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin.

 

Ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, as Hungary calls western Ukraine, fear that the 71 Hungarian schools there could be at risk of having to close, Szijjarto said.

 

He said relations between neighbors Hungary and Ukraine are at their most difficult period since Ukraine declared independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991.

 

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https://www.usnews.com/news/world/arti ... ver-ukraine-education-law

 

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