Hungary called on Ukraine to return the rights to its national minority that it had until 2015. This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peter Sijarto, during a visit to Uzhhorod.
Hungary has a list of requests regarding the national minority in Ukraine
The statement was made during a joint press conference of Szijjártó with his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba and the head of the Office of Ukraine's President Andriy Yermak after the meeting in Uzhhorod.
We came here to restore good neighborly relations, we have a long way to go, but we, on the Hungarian side, are ready to do this work. In Zakarpattia, Hungarians and Ukrainians live in peace, Szijjártó said.
He said that Ukraine and Hungary discussed complex issues, adding that recently, the two countries had bad neighbourly relations.
Starting from 2017, such laws were passed that reduced the rights of the Hungarian national minority. In December, the parliament passed a law that stopped this. But we have a request — maybe it is too much, and you will think that I am not polite — but we are asking to return to the Hungarian minority all the rights it had before 2015. We ask for nothing more.
Szijjártó said that Hungary has a request for 11 points: on the list, the restoration of the status of the national school, the possibility of writing the matriculation certificate in the Hungarian language and the use of Hungarian in public life.
He said the commission was instructed to agree on these issues and develop proposals for the ministries as soon as possible.
Meeting of Ukraine and Hungary in Uzhhorod
On January 29, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba, Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary Peter Szijjártó met in Uzhhorod.
They also honoured the memory of the fallen soldiers of the Armed Forces of Hungarian origin.
