On November 3, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a basis and in its entirety draft law No. 14120 "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine in Connection with the Update of the Official Translation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages."
Points of attention
- The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted a law removing special protection for the Russian language under the European Charter of Languages.
- This decision aims to eliminate uncertainty and restore historical justice in the country's language policy.
- Russian and Moldovan languages are no longer listed for special protection, while other languages like Urumqi, Rumi, Romani, and more are included.
The Russian language has lost special protection in Ukraine
264 parliamentarians voted "yes".
This was reported by People's Deputy and public figure Volodymyr Viatrovych.
The Russian language is no longer protected in Ukraine by the European Language Charter. The Verkhovna Rada has just passed a bill by 264 votes in its entirety, approving the correct translation of the Charter and removing the Russian and non-existent Moldovan languages from the ratification law.
Volodymyr Viatrovych
People's Deputy
Instead, the Charter's effect was preserved for all other languages it had previously applied to, and extended to Urumqi, Rumi, Romani, Czech, Crimean Tatar, Karaite, and Yiddish.
This decision was also supported by the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, Olena Ivanovska.
This is a decision the country has been waiting for for many years. The parliament has approved a correct translation of the European Charter: Russian and the non-existent "Moldovan" languages no longer appear in the ratification law as requiring special protection.
She recalled that back in 2021, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine obliged state bodies to eliminate uncertainty and ensure an official correct translation of the Charter.
Today, we have finally restored historical justice and turned the page on years of distortions used for political pressure and legitimization of Russification, demonstrating our maturity as a European state.
We will remind, earlier, bill No. 14120 could have been withdrawn from consideration due to "pressure from unnamed Russian lobbyists in the Council of Europe."
