Can you hear me? The invisible battles of Ukrainian military medics

Watch documentary now
Skip to content
Edit post

Zelensky approves EU-recommended amendments to law on national minorities

by Elsa Court and The Kyiv Independent news desk November 3, 2023 11:25 PM 2 min read
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sept. 7, 2023. (Source: Volodymyr Zelensky / Telegram)
This audio is created with AI assistance

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the updated law on national minorities, he said in his evening address on Nov. 3.

Changing the law was one of seven steps recommended by the European Commission in June 2022 for Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

On Sept. 21, Ukraine's parliament approved amendments to the law on national minorities to bring the rules and definitions in line with EU standards.

The law now allows for the publishing of advertisements in the language of a national minority within its community, as well as public and cultural events to be held in a minority language.

The law does not apply to the Russian language. Minority languages primarily refers to Romanian and Hungarian, which are spoken in some communities in western Ukraine.

The issue of national minorities has put Kyiv at odds with EU members Romania and Hungary in the past.

Budapest in particular has repeatedly accused Kyiv of oppressing the rights of Hungarian minorities that live in Ukraine.

In a diplomatic row that has gone on for years, Budapest has called Kyiv's language policies discriminatory and even threatened to block Ukraine's EU aspirations over the issue.

The 2001 Ukrainian census reported that around 150,000 Hungarians lived in Ukraine, though today this number is thought to be no higher than 80,000.

Baerbock hints at positive signal on Ukraine’s EU accession in December
“We want to see Ukraine as a member of our Union. And I am convinced that the European Council will give a signal this December,” Baerbock said at a press conference on EU enlargement in Berlin.

News Feed

MORE NEWS

Editors' Picks

Enter your email to subscribe
Please, enter correct email address
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan
* indicates required
Successfuly subscribed
Thank you for signing up for this newsletter. We’ve sent you a confirmation email.