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Ukraine fails to reach agreements with Hungary on key issues, minister says

Certain disagreements arose between the two countries as the Verkhovna Rada amended the law on education as regards instruction in the languages of ethnic minorities

KIEV, September 26. /TASS/. Ukraine and Hungary have failed to reach agreements on key issues, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said on Wednesday after talks with his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto.

"The meeting was anything but easy and we’ll continue working on a number of issues," he said. "We haven’t reached agreement on key problems yet and as far as I can see, we can’t strike accords because we see the ways of giving concrete assistance to the Hungarian community [in Ukraine] totally differently."

"Still I told Mr. Szijjarto I am committed to giving assistance exactly to our Hungarian community," Klimkin said.

Serious contradictions between Kiev and Budapest sprang up after the Vekhovna Rada, Ukraine’s national parliament, endorsed amendments to the law on education as regards instruction in the languages of ethnic minorities. A number of neighboring countries including Hungary reacted to the new legislative norms with indignation.

Specifically, the document envisions full transition of the entire instruction process in the middle school and high school to the Ukrainian language as of 2020, while ethnic minority languages will be taught though to the fifth grade.

Apart from Hungary, officials in Romania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece also voiced concern over the ‘reform’ and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a tough resolution on the amendments last October, saying they would put up huge obstacles for children from the ethnic minorities in getting access to instruction in their native tongues.

Hungary has blocked the meetings of the Ukraine-NATO Council at the level of foreign ministers on three occasions, making manifest its displeasure with Kiev on the issue.

The press service of the Ukrainian mission to NATO said on September 26 Hungary had blocked a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission at the level of defense ministers that was to take place on October 3 and October 4 at NATO headquarters.

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