BUDAPEST, December 21. /TASS/. Ukraine’s new law on ethnic minorities is a necessary but insufficient step toward restoring the rights of ethnic Hungarians, or Magyars, in the border region of Ukraine where they have a significant presence, Hungarian President Katalin Novak said.

"The free use of their native language is not just a condition for the survival of an indigenous ethnic group, but also one of the basic European standards for human rights," she pointed out in an interview with "The True Word of Transcarpathia" magazine, which is published in Hungarian in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia Region. This is why Ukraine’s move to soften its laws on ethnic minority rights "is necessary but insufficient," she added.

According to Novak, Hungary’s call for the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia to be respected should be viewed as a common European demand. "If EU accession talks [with Ukraine] are to be launched based on Brussels' decision, this is the least that can be done," the head of state said, referring to the rights of the Hungarian community in Ukraine.

On December 8, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (unicameral parliament) passed a law on the rights of ethnic minorities, which takes into account the recommendations issued by the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe. The document removes a number of language restrictions on ethnic minorities that speak one of the official languages of EU member states. However, the law keeps in place restrictions on the use of the Russian language in Ukraine, and makes them open-ended with an indefinite termination date. The Hungarian government said it would study the document and assess its practical implementation. In general, Budapest has shown a rather skeptical reaction to Kiev’s attempts to improve the situation of the Hungarian minority, pointing out that too much damage had already been done to the rights of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia in the previous eight years.