Hungary makes major deal with Ukraine, a former enemy
Hungarian Prime Minister Magyar has announced an agreement with Kyiv about rights for a Hungarian minority in Ukraine. It paves the way for Ukraine to
Hungarian Prime Minister Magyar has announced an agreement with Kyiv about rights for a Hungarian minority in Ukraine. It paves the way for Ukraine to start EU accession talks — unthinkable under Hungary's last leader. For Hungary's former autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orban, Ukraine was an "evil empire," a mafia state teeming with human traffickers, drug dealers and arms merchants. He and his regime even suggested that Ukraine wanted to launch an attack on Hungary. It is comments along those lines that likely contributed to Orban's crushing defeat in April. So far, his successor has not shown unconditional support for Ukraine either. Despite criticizing Orban's anti-Ukrainian rhetoric as lies and diversionary tactics, Peter Magyar has also ruled out providing military aid to Kyiv. At the same time, he has also criticized Russia. Minority rights for Hungarians in Transcarpathia But last week, Magyar announced a shift in Hungarian policy toward Ukraine that he described as "historic." He declared in a video posted on Facebook that the two countries had reached an agreement regarding the rights of the Hungarian minority in the western Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia. "In three weeks we managed to achieve what Viktor Orban couldn't do in 10 years," he said, adding that Ukraine was prepared to guarantee numerous rights to its Hungarian minority, particularly in education and language. Magyar said a declaration would soon be signed and that Ukraine had committed to implementing the measures in the near future.
Once this happened, he said, the Hungarian government would agree to open the first set of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union. During his first month as Hungarian prime minister, Magyar has already described quite a few things as "historic." Upon closer inspection, the details might be more nuanced. For example, Magyar said that "100,000 Hungarians are regaining fundamental rights," but many of the language rights in the field of education that he presented as being new already exist. Members of national minorities in Ukraine already have the right to obtain an education in their language if this is not Ukrainian. In this case, they have to follow classes where Ukrainian language, literature and history are taught in Ukrainian. Minority languages permitted in public institutions What is new is that under the new agreement Ukraine will enable the use of minority languages in public administration. This will lead to bilingual signs for place names or on government buildings. The use of minority languages will be permitted in public institutions if a minority constitutes over 10% of the local population. This is a requirement for EU membership, however, and not the result of a "historic negotiation" by Magyar. Bilingual signs could become much more common in future Image: Keno Verseck/DW But one likely outcome that was probably sought by representatives of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia is that minority schools will be maintained even if there are only a few children and young people left.
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