Ukraine tables draft bill on minority schooling to open two EU negotiation clusters

Ukrainian lawmakers introduced a bill on minority education meant to protect Ukrainian as the language of instruction while granting explicit schooling rights to national minorities and indigenous peoples, parliamentary committee head Serhii Babak said. Babak framed the bill as directly unlocking the opening of two EU accession negotiation clusters by addressing Hungary's veto over treatment of its ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

Babak said the bill does not narrow Ukrainian's status as the language of instruction and does not reinstate Russian in classrooms, while covering minorities whose languages are official EU languages. Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar responded publicly, saying he expects the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine to be fully guaranteed in practice, and noted the bill followed weeks of bilateral consultations.

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